Dreaming Out Loud
by bruised-tears
Summary: Ginny's son and Draco's daughter hate each other which makes things difficult when Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a mansion.It gets even worse when the dead family who lived there just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them
1. Chapter 1

"You're going to be late for your meeting

**A/N**: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Time of Fic**: After Deathly Hallows but completely disregarding the Epilogue (which I'm personally not happy about) and Fred is still alive because I love the twins.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'High School Never Ends' by the Bowling For Soup

Title taken from OneRepublic's album

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter One – High School Never Ends**

Four years, you think for sure  
That's all you've got to endure  
All the total dicks  
All the stuck-up chicks  
So superficial, so immature  
And then when you graduate  
You take a look around and you say, hey wait  
This is the same as where I just came from  
I thought it was over  
Oh that's just great  
The whole damn world is just as obsessed  
With who's the best dressed  
And who's having sex  
Who's got the money  
Who gets the honeys  
Who's kinda cute  
And who's just a mess  
And you still don't have the right look  
And you don't have the right friends  
Nothing changes, but the faces, the names and the trends  
High school never ends

"You're going to be late for your meeting."

Ginny glanced up over the top of her cubicle wall, shrugging one shoulder at her friend and co-worker who was hanging over the wall with a magazine in her hand.

"I'm Apparating, I've got plenty of time." She said, going back to the scattered pile of files and sheafs of parchment on her desk.

"He won't like you being late." Cressida teased, lifting her eyebrows when Ginny shot her a dirty look.

She heaved a sigh and shuffled her notes into a haphazard pile and dropped them into a drawer that opened on its own, revealing a number of colourful files.

"Why did it have to be Malfoy the owners hired to restore Hope place?" She said moodily, prodding sulkily at a miniature doll on her desk her niece had given her with the tip of her quill.

It squealed loudly and shuffled behind a large picture of her family in an ornate silver frame.

"I know… imagine having to spend all day every day for months locked up in a spooky mansion with the most eligible bachelor in the wizarding world, who also happens to look like a swimwear centrefold model from Playwitch. It's just so damn infuriating." Cressida said, rolling her eyes and waving the magazine in her hand at Ginny.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at Cressida, snatching the magazine out of hands as she flapped it happily under her nose again. Ginny flipped through the magazine, snorting when she reached a glossy page depicting Draco Malfoy with only his hands to keep him from indecency standing in a shallow pool. He blinked steadily up at her, a smirk on his face and his wet hair dripping steadily onto his wet shoulders. She held it up to Cressida, who shrugged and continued to grin at her.

"Last month's edition of Playwitch." She said innocently as Ginny flipped through the magazine, coming across several more pictures from the same photo shoot.

"I know what he looks like." Ginny said firmly, rolling up the magazine and dropping it idly onto her desk.

"Well there might be someone out there who doesn't and who needs appraising of what they're missing." Cressida replied promptly, completely unabashed and busying waving at a passing co-worker who nearly dropped his tray of coffees trying to wave back.

"It's a meeting with the headmaster of our children's school, Cress." Ginny pointed out as she got to her feet, flapping a hovering memo away from her face irritably.

"Details." Cressida said twirling her wand in one hand, aiming it at her head trying to secure her long dark hair back neatly.

Ginny hurriedly pushed the wand back down away from her friend's face before she took out an eye or worse. She shrugged into her pale blue cloak and piled her files into her arms.

"Hold on, let me look you over." Cressida demanded, stepping swiftly in front of her and pulling open her cloak.

She stared at Ginny closely for a long moment and a passing reporter, who was flicking through a newspaper, shot them a strange look. Ginny snatched herself out of Cressida's grip and straightened her cloak with a ruffled look.

"I don't care how I look… it's just a meeting." She repeated, fastening her cloak with a self-conscious glare at Cressida.

"Yes but Ginny, you need a bit of sexing up." Cressida said cheerfully, tugging the tie out of Ginny's hair and fluffing the molten locks around her head.

She withdrew her wand from her jeans pocket and rapped Ginny on the head with unnecessary force as Ginny opened her mouth to argue. Her hair sprang up into curls and Ginny had barely snorted angrily when Cressida shook her head and jabbed her with the wand again.

"Too Rita Skeeter." She muttered to herself as the curls unravelled a little to become waves. "Much better."

She brandished her wand before Ginny's face and Ginny flinched, the wand tip passing barely an inch past her eye. She grinned fondly at Cressida who was muttering to herself trying to remember a spell to apply make up to Ginny's face.

"I don't really care what I look like." Ginny sighed, glancing pointedly at her watch. "It's only Malfoy."

Cressida waved her wand with a triumphant look on her face and Ginny felt something rub across her face. She glared suspiciously at Cressida but didn't have time to say anything before Cressida brandished her wand again. Ginny's pale blue cloak with snowy white lining whirled around her and became a pretty blue dress with white elbow-length sleeves.

"That was my favourite cloak!" Ginny gasped in outrage as Cressida waved her wand at the pile of clothes Ginny had previously been wearing.

They lifted into the air and her black trousers and violet blouse became an elegant black cloak with violet swirls and lining.

"Are you done now?" Ginny snapped as Cressida tapped her wand against her palm and continued to stare at her contemplatively.

Cressida pointed her wand at Ginny's black kitten heels and they became a pair of white high-heeled wedges. Ginny could hardly speak in outrage as Cressida gave Ginny a beaming smile, patted her on the cheek and whipped back into her cubicle.

Ginny could barely move with anger as she began to adjust to the abrupt change of clothes. She had just dug into her cloak pocket for her wand to change it all back when her boss marched over to her.

"Weasley! You're late for your meeting and since I graciously gave you the time off for it you better not waste any more of my money!"

She opened her mouth to tell him where he could stick his job but he had already turned away. She stood frozen for a long moment, bristling to herself before sighing and crossing the room. Once she was outside she headed across the busy main foyer of the building. By the time she had reached the cordoned off section specifically for Apparition, she had barely a minute to get to the school.

"This day already sucks." She muttered to herself, almost tripping over her heels as she stepped over the thin ropes.

"You're late."

Ginny was still ruffled and irritable when she appeared at the school and the immediate presence of a snobby looking witch did nothing to alter her mood.

"By thirty seconds." She snapped, yanking her dress straight and hauling her papers closer to her as they slipped precariously towards the floor.

The witch glared at her for a moment before turning on her heel and marching off down the corridor. It was deserted except for the burly security wizards guarding the double doors at the end of the corridor. Ginny felt more self-conscious than ever as she took in the witch's outfit. She was in a tight-fitting black pencil skirt with a matching jacket and apparently nothing underneath either based on the lack of lines.

She opened the door after a pert knock and announced Ginny's presence to the room. She ushered Ginny in and shut the door smartly behind her. Ginny glanced around the room, it was huge. She barely had time to take in the copious amounts of shiny wood panelling and deep red leather furniture, before the tall blond man slouched on the deep leather couch snorted at her.

"You're late."

She glared at Malfoy as both he and Headmaster Garnsey rose to greet her. She eyed him beadily, from top to bottom as the nervous-looking headmaster fumbled with the files on his desk. His silvery blond hair was no longer slicked back but left shaggy around his eyes and his slim athletic body had filled out judging by the cut of his expensive black cords, black v-neck sweater and charcoal suede jacket.

"Yes well some of us work for a living." She muttered under her breath as she smiled at the headmaster and shook his hand.

"I'm sure you're both aware of why we're here?" Headmaster Garnsey said softly, a slight tremble in his voice as Ginny and Draco scowled at each other from their seats on opposite ends of the couch.

"I was actually wondering why I had to be here when it was Weasley's son who attacked my daughter." Malfoy said coldly.

"He did not attack your daughter, your little witch bit him." Ginny snapped, blushing at his snipe at her son.

"I've personally heard both sides of the story from your children, and have come to the same conclusion for both of them."

The headmaster was wringing his hands in front of his face, carefully rearranging the top of his desk one piece at a time.

"I think the best way for your children to learn that this behaviour is unacceptable is to leave this school for the rest of the term until they are aware of how to behave."

Ginny and Draco gaped angrily at the headmaster, who kept his gaze fixed firmly on a spot of his desk.

"What exact behaviour does this school demand that a Malfoy cannot fulfil?" Draco asked in an icily cold voice that made Ginny shiver and the headmaster cough awkwardly.

"Mr Malfoy… Miss Weasley… this wasn't exactly my decision. Despite the fact that I am the headmaster here… the Governors voted that your children are to be used as an example, I'm afraid."

Draco continued to stare the headmaster down with a disbelieving look on his face. He eventually pulled two sheets of paper from a drawer and slid each of them towards Ginny and Draco.

"These contracts outline the details of the suspension and the length until its completion."

Ginny took the form and cast a cursory glance over it, not at all happy that a suspension due to anger management issues would appear on her son's record.

"And what if I don't feel my daughter's need to take this suspension?"

Headmaster Garnsey cast a long look over Draco before sighing and leaning back in his chair.

"If this program isn't completed, then I'm afraid I shall have to find it necessary for your children to leave my school permanently."

Ginny bit her lip at his words, she really didn't want Rayne to have to do this but this was the best school available in Europe and the rest of the term was only a month. She signed the contract and slid it back across the desk towards the headmaster. After a long moment, Draco signed too with a scowl on his face.

The headmaster tapped his wand against a little disc on his desk and his receptionist opened the door to let the two children in.

"Daddy!"

A blur of blue shot past Ginny and wrapped itself around Draco. Rayne Weasley hovered besides the couch for a moment, staring up at his mother with huge nervous eyes. She grinned at him and he gave her a beaming grin of relief back, launching himself at her. She pulled him up into her lap and cradled him to her. He didn't look like a typical Weasley; he had wavy mahogany hair and huge bright blue eyes fringed with thick black lashes.

When he'd finished jabbering his apologies and telling her what had happened at school that day, he finally settled down on her lap. Ginny glanced sideways to see the blonde bombshell sitting on Draco's lap. She was an absolutely stunning child; thick white-blonde locks curled around her head like a halo and enhancing the dark glittering almond-shaped eyes. She was neatly dressed in an electric blue summer dress with matching pumps, silver tights and a little grey cardigan.

She was staring directly at Ginny with a curious look in her eyes, her glossy black lashes shining in the light from the windows. Ginny felt unnerved by the gaze of the young girl, staring at her so still and unblinking.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Weasley, Mr Malfoy."

Headmaster Garnsey rose to his feet to shake their hands, patted the children on the head and ushered them all out of the room.

They stood in the corridor outside of his office as Draco's rude assistant from earlier helped his daughter into her coat and Ginny crouched down to help Rayne into his jacket around his constant flow of chatter and excited gesturing.

"Well, Weasley, looks like we're going to be spending some time together."

She rose back to her feet, holding her son's hand tightly and watching Draco warily. He had his now gloved hands on his daughter's shoulders, eyeing her lazily.

"Unfortunately." She said, tugging Rayne's mittens on and tucking his scarf into his jacket.

"Now now, shouldn't we be setting a good example?" He smirked as Ginny tugged Rayne's bobble-hat onto his head snugly, tickling his chin as she tied it securely.

"You have nice hair."

Ginny was so shocked she could only goggle at Malfoy's daughter who was smiling up at her prettily, a little black beret that matched her expensive gloves and scarf perched on her soft curls.

"Err… thank you?" She said slowly, unsure how to reply to a child so very different from her nieces.

"It's a pretty colour." She continued but Rayne stepped protectively in front of his mother with his hands up to halt her from moving closer.

"Stop it, Lyra!" He said loudly. "Stop being nice when you're not nice… you can't trick MY Mum!"

Draco drew Lyra back towards him and away from Rayne with one strong hand, eyeing the little redhead with distaste.

"You should learn to control your child, Weasley." He said, his lip curling slightly as Ginny bristled at him.

She turned her back on the pair of them and stalked off down the corridor towards the Floo Room, Rayne almost running to catch up with her angry strides.

"I'm sorry Mum… she's always nice the first time and then she tricks you…" Rayne stopped when they reached the Floo Room, breathless from keeping up.

Ginny stopped and turned to look down at Rayne with a stern look on her face. He looked so earnest, staring up at her with huge eyes and looking almost drowned in his huge coat and hat and scarf. She softened and lifted him up into her arms, inhaling his soap, grass and fruity shampoo scent.

"It's alright. You know not to hit a girl, EVER, don't you?" She asked him seriously, looking him carefully in the eye.

"Yes, Mum. It's not chivalrous to ever hit a girl and a gentleman should always try and be chivalrous." He said, looking to one side as he concentrated on the difficult words.

"Good boy." She grinned putting him back down and leading him over to the nearest fireplace.

* * *

"Here are the keys, you can pick any room you want to stay in. The Floo network is fully operational but there is no Apparition in the house and grounds I'm afraid."

Ginny nodded, struggling to look the greasy-looking caretaker in the eye as he stared very fixedly at her chest and licked his lips.

"No problem." She said, holding her files and folders up to her chest to block his gaze.

"The architect arrives in an hour if you want to wait for him before you go up into the house. There's an owl you can use in the shed because the Owlery caved in last year. There's no one about because the grounds take up three-quarters of the area. There is a little village about ten miles north of here where you can get food from the nearby farms."

Ginny nodded again, hoping he was leaving soon before she rammed her wand into his eyes which were now staring at her legs under her knee-length pencil skirt.

"Thank you, I'll be sure to let you know if I need anything in future." She said pointedly, staring at him for a long moment as he continued to merely look at her.

She frowned and walked past him, up the overgrown path towards the rusty iron gates of the house. It had a Georgian look about it; a huge balcony on the second floor which had supporting pillars drowning in ivy. She tapped her wand against the gates and a little oval appeared between them with a key hole in the centre.

She unlocked the gates and headed up the weed-strewn gravely path. There was a crumbling fountain outside the front of the house, four beautiful women in elegantly draped dresses which bared their marble shoulders and long legs. Their faces were wearing away from the elements but their large oval eyes still peered in every direction even as the weeds sprouted from all sorts of places. She wandered past the fountain, squinting at the overgrown lawns which stretched in every direction until they melted into the forest which the Hopes had also owned.

"Big."

She jumped and whirled around to see Draco standing behind her with his hands in his coat pockets. The wind was whipping his hair around his face as she glared at him.

"Don't sneak up on me like that." She snapped, watching as Lyra appeared from behind the fountain looking immaculate as ever in jeans and a blouse.

"Hello." She said sweetly, her hair tied back in pigtails on either side of her face.

"Hello." Ginny muttered. "You brought your daughter with you?"

Draco nodded as Lyra wandered off to look at the stained glass windows in the front door.

"Of course, she's my daughter." He said haughtily, watching Lyra stand up on her tiptoes to peer into the house.

"Where's her mother?" She asked cheekily, knowing exactly where Lyra's mother was thanks to her picture being plastered all over the front of a trashy witch magazine this morning.

"She's working." He said flatly as Ginny rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah, if working means screwing the richest man she can find on his yacht in the Bahamas." She said sweetly, turning back to the house.

She tapped the front door with her wand and once again a key hole appeared in the centre of the door. She let them in and Lyra instantly darted off to explore. Ginny stepped into the marble foyer of the house carefully, her heels clicking conspicuously on the floor. Sweeping marble stairs from both sides of the room merged into one long balcony on the second floor.

"The marble's exquisite." She said to herself, squatting down to wipe some of the dust and rubble away from a small area.

"Those stairs are going to need reinforcing underneath."

She turned to see Draco eyeing the marble stairs carefully and she grinned to herself. She stood up and brushed the dust from her skirt, heading through into the next room. It appeared to be a parlour with huge double French windows that opened out onto the lawn at the side of the house. She moved over to the windows and tugged at one of the curtains, which fell loudly to the floor with a resounding clang.

Ginny coughed and waved the dust away from her face sheepishly. She ignored the look that Draco was giving her and continued her circuit of the room. The furniture was a little too old fashioned and dusty to be comfortable but the fireplace in the centre of the room was beautiful. She was still staring at the fireplace when it roared to life with bright green flames. Rayne appeared in the centre of them, coughing and sneezing as he blinked up at his mother sweetly.

"Rayne?" She said slowly, brushing the soot from her son's hair and face. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be staying at Grandma and Granddad's."

He shrugged and wrapped his arms around his mother's waist, burying his face in her stomach.

"I missed you." He sniffed into her blouse.

She rolled her eyes at the guilt trip, she had GOT to stop letting him stay with Fred and George when she worked overtime.

"You behave yourself or you can stay at Uncle Ron and Auntie Hermione's."

Rayne glared at her for a moment; the use of Hermione's rather strict household was a punishment she kept for serious offences.

"That's a bit harsh don't you think, Weasley. The child hasn't killed anyone as far as you know."

Ginny bit her tongue to keep from hurling a few choice words at Malfoy as Rayne happily seized on Malfoy's interruption to dart off into the depths of the house.

"Be careful!" She shouted after him, shaking her head to herself and picking up the clipboard she'd dropped when Rayne had latched onto her.

"This house is going to take weeks just to appraise and draw up the designs for." Draco said thoughtfully, sighing and pulling out the miniature luggage he had shrunk from his pocket.

"Probably." Ginny agreed, eyeing the sculpted ceiling filled with damp patches and crumbling sections. "Well I'll need a list of the major changes you're going to make as soon as possible so I can salvage what I can from the rooms you're ripping out or whatever."

He eyed her as she scanned the room, taking everything in and occasionally scribbling down a few notes. They both started when a sudden screaming match shattered the peaceful silence. They made their way into the adjoining room to where Lyra and Rayne were each tugging on a side of a painting they had rummaged out of the rubble.

"Stop it both of you." Draco ordered, his voice thundering around the large room.

They both stopped and dropped the painting between them, glaring at each other as they retreated to their respective parents.

"This should be fun." Ginny said as Rayne folded his arms and growled at Lyra. "You want to take one wing and we'll take the other?"

Draco nodded and they went their separate ways, Ginny and Rayne to the North Wing and Draco and Lyra to the South Wing.


	2. Chapter 2

**

* * *

**

A/N

: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, minor Ron/Hermione and Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'Nobody Knows' by the Pink

This is definitely not the best thing I've ever written but I'm quite proud of it because I've had writer's block for about two years and this cleared it. Not much happening yet but there shall be soon. Enjoy.

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter Two – Nobody Knows**

Nobody knows but me  
That I sometimes cry  
If I could pretend that I'm asleep  
When my tears start to fall  
I peek out from behind these walls  
I think nobody knows  
Nobody knows no  
Nobody likes to lose that inner voice  
The one I used to hear before my life  
Made a choice  
But I think nobody knows  
Baby, oh the secret's safe with me  
There's nowhere else in the world that I could ever be  
And baby don't it feel like I'm all alone  
Who's gonna be there after the last angel has flown  
And I've lost my way back home  
I think nobody knows no  
I said nobody knows  
Nobody cares  
It's win or lose not how you play the game  
And the road to darkness has a way  
Of always knowing my name  
But I think nobody knows

"Mum! Mum!"

Ginny jerked awake at the sound of Rayne's voice, bolting upright in her bed and staring around wildly.

"Rayne?!"

She threw back the covers and raced to the door, yanking it open and almost falling over the two children standing there.

"Rayne what are you doing…" She trailed off when she realised she was talking to an empty doorway.

She scrunched her nose in confusion and rubbed her sleep-filled eyes.

"Rayne?"

He appeared around the corner of the hallway, already filthy with his t-shirt on inside out and his trousers buttoned up wrong.

"Mum… Mum… guess what… guess…" He stopped and stared up at her, rubbing one cheek with a grubby hand.

"What have you been doing?" She asked, tugging on her dressing gown and ushering him back towards his room next door.

"Me and Lyra were in the attic… there's the coolest toys and stuff and Lyra nearly fell out of one of the windows but then she didn't and we found…" His voice was muffled as she pulled his t-shirt over his head. "…these books of pictures and these diaries… Lyra wanted to read them but I said they weren't ours…"

Ginny grinned at him as he perched on the edge of the bath while she set about cleaning the tub with her wand. When she was satisfied she turned the taps on. A loud creaking noise filled the room and a trickle of brown goo eased out of the taps.

"Eww." Ginny muttered to herself, keeping a careful eye on Rayne as he climbed onto the toilet seat to peer out of the dusty window at the grounds. "No running water yet, great."

She tapped her wand against the bathtub and the goo was replaced with hot steaming water with fragrant bubbles.

"Come here." She said, helping Rayne scramble down from the toilet seat still yapping about how cool the house was and that they should leave it the way it is.

She undressed him and dumped his smelly and thoroughly ruined clothes into a pile to one side before lifting him into the water.

"Can I trust you to get clean and not drown yourself for ten minutes while I get dressed?" She asked him as he set about creating a beard for himself with the bubbles.

"I'm not a child." He said, shaping the bubbles on his face careful and peering intently at his reflection in the water.

"Of course not." She said, kissing his wet head and getting to her feet.

She left the door to his room open so she could hear him in the tub as she took one of the thirty-second showers she had fast become used to thanks to her job. She pulled on a pair of ripped cut-off denim shorts and a plain black t-shirt, tied her hair back in a short ponytail and grabbed her boots from her still open suitcase.

"Weasley."

She groaned and pulled open her door. Draco Malfoy was standing on the other side of it with a scowl on his face and his arms folded over his chest.

"Now what have I done?"

He lifted his eyebrows at her and uncrossed his arms to glare at her angrily.

"Your little demon almost let MY daughter fall off the damn roof."

Ginny shook her head and moved past him into the hallway.

"They were in the attic not on the roof." She said, heading down the hallway towards Rayne's room.

"Not the point." He huffed, following her until she stopped outside of Rayne's room and turned back to him.

"And just so you know… my son sleeps like he's in a coma so the only way they could have been in the attic in the first place, is if your daughter talked him into it."

She smiled prettily up at him and shut the door in his face. When she reached the bathroom she sighed and shook her head. Rayne had managed to splash three-quarters of the water from his bath all over the floor and soaked every towel she had brought into the bathroom.

"Mum! Mum! The back garden is huge… we have to go play some Quidditch out there… we just gotta."

She grinned as she wrapped a freshly dried towel around him and lifted him out of the bath.

"Not yet we can't." She said as she rubbed his head with the towel. "We have to go to the village to get some food and then we have to get to work."

He muttered something under his breath and stared mutinously at the floor as she led him into the bedroom to get him dressed.

"Besides you didn't bring your broom." She said patiently, digging through his suitcase for some suitable clothes.

"I did." He said triumphantly as she sat him on the bed to dress him properly in an old pair of jeans and a red t-shirt.

"I didn't see it in the suitcase that Grandma shrank for you." She replied, only half listening as she combed his thick wavy hair gently.

"Uncle George taught me how to shrink stuff when he was showing me his wand." He said offhandedly, scratching his ear as she tugged on his socks.

"I'll wring his neck when I get my hands on him." She muttered to herself as she laced up his trainers.

"I'm going to shrink Lyra's shoes later… when I get her Dad's wand." He said decisively, cackling at the thought of it.

"And how exactly were you planning on getting his wand?" She asked him as she led him out of the room and down the still rather dangerously cluttered stairs.

"He keeps it in his back pocket, I've seen it." He said, scowling when Draco and Lyra appeared out of the parlour.

"We're going down to the village for food. Do you want anything?" Ginny asked politely, checking her pockets for her keys and purse.

"Let's go to the village, Daddy!" Lyra said instantly, her hands folded delicately in front of her on top of her sky-blue dungarees.

Draco gave Ginny a look and she shrugged standing back as Lyra and Rayne darted out of the front door, almost forgetting to be nasty to each other in their excitement. As Ginny passed Draco on her way out of the door she tugged his wand from his back pocket and handed it to him.

"I wouldn't keep that there anymore if I were you." She said, catching the almost amused look on his face as he shut the door behind them.

* * *

"It's a long walk, you know." Ginny said after the best part of an hour in silence, wandering along the overgrown country path towards the village.

Draco nodded, watching as Lyra ran ahead picking various flowers from the hedges by the road.

"She's very beautiful." Ginny commented, following his gaze after she had determined that Rayne was safe and still in sight in the field next to the path.

"I know." Draco replied, a smug smirk on his face as they stopped to watch Rayne prod a lazy sheep with a long stick he had recovered from the ground.

It bleated unhappily and shuffled off up the field leaving Rayne cackling with laughter and deciding the stick was now set to be a sword.

"OK, I'm trying to be polite here." Ginny finally snapped, scratching at her arm where a fly had landed.

"You want me to tell you I think your son is attractive?" Draco snorted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his tan-coloured trousers.

"No." Ginny said irritably. "I just thought you could participate in a conversation like a polite person would."

They glared at each other under the hot sun for a moment before continuing down the winding path, Ginny swinging the bag she had brought with bottles of water idly at her side.

"She has a lot of her mother in her." Draco finally said, squinting into the horizon and frowning as Lyra wiped a dirty hand on her brand new dungarees.

"How do you mean?" Ginny asked, handing him a bottle of water which he took with a silent nod of thanks.

"She's beautiful, cunning, smart, stubborn, ambitious…" Draco trailed off as he took a large gulp from his bottle, which was magically charmed to stay cool and refill itself.

"Your wife is smart?" Ginny repeated disbelievingly, rolling her eyes when Draco gave her a reproachful look.

"That's the mother of my child you're talking about." He said reprovingly, handing his bottle to Lyra as she bounded up to him covered in dust.

Ginny waved her wand over Lyra's dress and the dust disappeared as she gulped on her water before handing the almost empty bottle back to her father.

"Perdita is very smart." He said. "That's what's so bad about her… she works out exactly how to get to you."

Ginny looked up at him for a long moment, trying to figure out what he was thinking behind the blank face.

"You mean she tricked you into marriage?" She asked, pushing her sweaty side-fringe out of her eyes and wiping her palms on her shorts.

"Not exactly." He said and for the first time Ginny could tell that Draco Malfoy was uncomfortable.

They continued on in silence, Lyra and Rayne squirting each other with the water bottles noisily a few yards in front of them.

"How about you?" He asked as they turned onto the slightly better-kept path which led directly into the village.

"You want to know what I think of Perdita?" She said evasively, grinning sheepishly when Draco glared at her.

"You wanted to do this polite thing." He chided childishly, swinging Lyra into a piggy-back after she had pouted at him for a while.

"I know I know." She muttered, taking hold of Rayne's hand when he came back over to them shyly as the occupants of the village came into view.

* * *

"We should really get to work tomorrow." Ginny sighed as she piled their plates into the sink.

Rayne pulled a face at her from across the table and she rolled her eyes at him.

"We're here to do a job and you know it." She told him, sticking her tongue out at him as she waved her wand over the plates to clean them.

She lifted Rayne down from his high stool at the kitchen table and sent him off to his room with a new wizarding comic she had bought him earlier.

"Wine?" Draco asked, unearthing a bottle of wine from one of the many bags they had returned with from the village.

Ginny stared at him for a long moment before nodding. She grabbed two chipped mugs from the side and transfigured them into sparkling wine glasses and grabbed a brand new rather gaudy blue and orange chequered blanket.

"Might as well sit outside." She said, pointing at the lowering sun through the grimy kitchen window.

She had to struggle with the door for a while until it finally gave way and opened. She emerged onto a back porch that stretched the length of the house. There were three steps leading down into the back garden and Ginny spread out the blanket before them so they had a view over the downward sloping jungle of a garden which led to the fields beyond. She sat down cross-legged on the blanket and held out the glasses for Draco to fill with the wine.

It was still warm and musky and the distant bleating of sheep and twittering of birds was comforting. They sat in silence for a while, sipping their wine and staring out into the distance.

"This house is going to be beautiful." Ginny finally said, breaking the silence that was strangely comfortable.

Draco nodded, turning to look at the back of the house which was just as broken down as the front.

"But we'll have to get a landscaper in to sort this out." He pointed out, waving his glass in the direction of the garden.

"A place this big is going to take the best part of a year." She mused, already wondering what colour she could paint the porch.

"We should get everyone we'll need in as soon as we can." He muttered, finishing off his glass idly.

Ginny leant back against the heels of her hands, turning her face up to look at the damage under the porch roof.

"Do you know any good landscapers?" He continued, squinting at the setting sun.

She thought about it for a long moment, watching the sinking sun in the distance and idly scratching at her knee.

"Well I do have someone in mind…" She said slyly, peering up at him through her lowered lashes. "You won't like it though."

* * *

"Longbottom!" Draco almost fell down the last few steps of the staircase when he saw who Ginny was embracing on the doorstep.

Ginny glared at him for his rudeness before stepping back so Neville could get into the house. He eyed the complete mess the house was in, they still hadn't even cleared the rubbish and debris out yet, with raised eyebrows. His face was ruddy from days spent in the sun and he had filled into his frame rather nicely since Hogwarts.

"Do you want a drink or do you want to look at the garden straight away?" She asked him, looping her arm through his as she kicked the door shut behind him.

"Neville!" Rayne bellowed, exploding into the room covered in dust yet again and with a rip in his shirt.

He hurtled across the room and latched onto Neville's legs, gabbling excitedly. Being a good friend of the family Neville had visited the Weasleys for Sunday lunch often, always bringing samples of exciting and sometimes entirely new species of plants to show the children. As a result Rayne was besotted with him and was always clamouring for his mother to go out so he could be looked after by Neville.

"How about we take our drinks into the garden." Ginny decided, leading Neville, who now had Rayne clinging to his back, and trailing a thoroughly dubious looking Draco into the kitchen.

As they still hadn't got around to starting what they had been employed to do, Ginny had merely cleared a space on one corner of the kitchen table to be used. On the corner was a jug of freshly squeezed lemonade which she had made earlier, a bowl of chicken and salad and a large plate of tuna and cucumber sandwiches all of which Ginny picked up as they headed out onto the porch.

It was so hot in this area that they had taken to eating at a table and chair set which Draco had summoned outside on the porch. Ginny placed their lunch down on this table and gestured for Neville to sit. She took Rayne back into the house on her way for glasses and told him to keep himself out of trouble.

"What do you think?" She asked Neville as she poured all three of them a glass of lemonade.

"It's a big job." He said, idly chewing on a sandwich as he surveyed the huge garden before him.

"It is." She agreed, waving her own sandwich around as she spoke. "You've seen the front, which also needs designing. Do you think you can do it?"

Neville umm-ed and ahh-ed as he made calculations on a battered piece of parchment from his robes.

"That's expensive." Draco observed as he eyed his final calculation, looking not unimpressed. "How do we know you can do the job for that price?"

"Malfoy!" Ginny snapped, kicking him hard under the table. "Neville is very good at his job. Gardening isn't as easy as it sounds you know you can't do it magically."

Neville patted Ginny on the shoulder and she huffed at Draco before taking a gulp of her drink.

"Can you do some sketches and make some notes and I'll send them to the owners for approval." Ginny said, turning away from Draco and speaking directly at Neville.

"Sure no problem, I'll have to do them this afternoon if you don't mind." Neville finished off his sandwich with relish. "These are good. I'm in a meeting first thing tomorrow."

Ginny nodded, disappearing into the house briefly and leaving Draco and Neville alone.

"So this is what you do for a living, Longbottom." Draco said idly, leaning back in his chair.

Neville stared at him coolly, he wasn't scared of Slytherins anymore and he had gained enough confidence over the years to feel secure in himself.

"Part-time." He answered, gulping some of the lemonade thirstily.

He didn't seem to be elaborating any further and Draco was damned if he was going to show an interest in Longbottom's little life. Ginny emerged from the house with Rayne and Lyra in tow. She handed Neville a magical camera and a notepad.

"Here you go. Rayne not now, Neville is working I told you."

Rayne pouted at her and Neville chuckled, getting to his feet and handing Rayne and Lyra a sandwich each.

"No problem." He said cheerily. "I can charge for baby-sitting while I'm here."

Ginny rolled her eyes as Neville, Rayne and Lyra headed off down into the jungle of a garden.

"Don't worry, he's very good with children." Ginny reassured Draco as she caught him eyeing Neville's back carefully.

"I didn't take you for a Longbottom-shagger." He said, turning back to see her mouthing with outrage.

"I am not… we are not…" She spluttered angrily, her face burning red with anger at his rudeness. "How dare you…"

Eventually she gave up and stormed off into the house to start her work.

* * *

Draco had just wandered into the kitchen on the lookout for something cool to drink when he found Ginny. She was standing by the sink gulping down a huge bottle of icy water. She was only in a tattered pair of white cotton dungarees over a rather too-small orange bikini-top which clashed with her hair. She had slicked her hair back from her face with water and it was drawn back and held into place with a pencil. She was drenched in sweat, streaks of dust striping her skin and turning her hair white.

"What have you been doing?" He asked in amazement at the sight of her.

She jumped and spilt the water down her chin. Glaring at him she wiped her chin with the back of her hand and spread more dust onto her face.

"I've been clearing out the house." She said as though it should have been obvious. "I've started with the attic."

He took a bottle from the sink which was full of water charmed to be cold and brimming with bottles. Ginny hadn't started designing the kitchen yet and was loathe to buy a fridge and then change her mind.

"You look like…" He trailed off as he surveyed her again, watching her embarrassed toes curl above her black flip-flops.

He didn't, however, fail to notice that her very long and fast-browning legs were very evident under her dungarees.

"I don't know what." He finally said after a lengthy pause when they both gulped their water.

"It would go a lot faster if you actually helped." She pointed out, pushing away from the sink and heading back to the door.

She expected a smart-ass remark but instead he only followed her back up to the attic, lazily running an expert eye over her backside as she moved up the stairs above him. She stopped abruptly and he nearly fell down the stairs in his distracted state.

"Stop watching me." She hissed, very aware that she was much angrier at the fact that she had an insistent pulse beating between her legs from his scrutiny than because he was actually checking her out.

_Christ I go almost a year without sex and I get turned on by Malfoy?! I don't think so._ Ginny growled to herself as she continued to stomp up the stairs towards the attic. _Bloody huge house with its half a million stairs_

* * *

**Yuki Asao** – thank you very much glad you like it

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	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'Viva La Vida' by the Coldplay

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter Three – Viva La Vida**

I used to rule the world  
Seas would rise when I gave the word  
Now in the morning I sweep alone  
Sweep the streets I used to own  
I used to roll the dice  
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes  
Listen as the crowd would sing:  
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"  
One minute I held the key  
Next the walls were closed on me  
And I discovered that my castles stand  
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand  
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing  
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing  
Be my mirror my sword and shield  
My missionaries in a foreign field  
For some reason I can't explain  
Once you go there was never, never an honest word  
That was when I ruled the world  
It was the wicked and wild wind  
Blew down the doors to let me in.  
Shattered windows and the sound of drums  
People couldn't believe what I'd become  
Revolutionaries wait  
For my head on a silver plate  
Just a puppet on a lonely string  
Oh who would ever want to be king?  
I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing  
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing  
Be my mirror my sword and shield  
My missionaries in a foreign field  
For some reason I can't explain  
I know Saint Peter won't call my name  
Never an honest word  
But that was when I ruled the world

"This family had a lot of stuff." Ginny huffed as she heaved a huge box down from one of the shelves in the attic.

Losing her balance, the box crashed to the ground with a very loud bang and shook piles of dust loose onto both her and Draco. Coughing and spluttering Ginny wiped the dust from her running eyes, sneezing rapidly.

"Very smooth." Draco smirked, shaking dust from his hair and making his way over to her carefully on the rickety attic floor. "What is it?"

Ginny crouched down and began rifling through the contents of the now broken box.

"Photographs and files." She muttered, unearthing a photograph and holding it up to the light.

Draco whistled.

"Wouldn't kick that out of bed." He murmured to himself, receiving a sharp elbow in the ribs from Ginny.

"Don't be disrespectful." She hissed at him, tucking the photograph back into the album it had fallen out of.

"Do you think they have any relations left alive?" Draco asked idly, tapping the box with his wand so it was strong enough for Ginny to pile the contents back into it.

"Maybe, I'll find out tomorrow." She said, shoving the box over to the pile near the entrance to the attic which were to be taken downstairs and sorted out at a later date.

"How did one family have this much junk?" Draco muttered, kicking a nearby rotting rocking horse which wobbled ominously.

"It's called family." She said nastily, standing up to survey their work for the past two days.

The attic was finally cleared into two piles; things which could be discarded and things which could be kept or fixed. They had contacted the owners of the house asking if there was anything in particular they wanted keeping but they had given Ginny and Draco free reign to discard anything they wished. Naturally this had resulted in several loud and sometimes violent arguments over what was worth keeping and what wasn't. Draco tapped the "discard" pile with his wand and it disappeared in a brief flash of fire until nothing was left but dust.

"We've made progress." Ginny said as she shrank the "keep" pile and tucked it all into her pocket for later.

Draco nodded as Ginny moved over to join him. They performed the few cleansing, scrubbing and disinfecting charms they needed until the attic was in almost perfect condition.

"I'll just have to check over the wood to make sure it's all safe and then it's all yours. I don't think I'll change anything in here."

Ginny nodded, her hands on her hips as she surveyed every inch of the room.

"I think maybe we can turn this into a sort of relaxing area." She mused out loud.

"Maybe if we put a fireplace in there and lengthened those windows from floor to ceiling." Draco continued, nodding his head as Ginny touched the overhead beams.

"Lovely feature." She muttered to herself.

The sound of the children arguing downstairs made them both jump guiltily. They'd been so busy all day they'd hardly seen them but to shove some food at them. Not exactly good parenting.

"Well if you can let me know what your final designs are then I'll start on my designs." She said as they made their way downstairs to the children.

He was silent as they approached the kitchen, as he had been for most of the past two days as they cleared out the attic. He didn't speak to her unless it was to answer her but every now and then Ginny had caught him looking at her idly, studying her the way he studied a room he was employed to re-design. It didn't exactly make her uncomfortable, in fact she wasn't sure what it made her feel so she tried not to dwell too much on it.

"These came for you, Mum." Rayne said, handing her some letters and a rather sticky envelope covered in jam from his doughnut.

"Thanks, baby." She kissed the top of his head and ripped open the envelope.

It was Neville's designs for the garden. They were large watercolour designs with little bubbles of information on the plants he had chosen which enlarged when tapped with a wand.

"Wow." She muttered, flipping through them.

The first showed the top half of the garden leading down from the porch. It showed long sweeping lawns speckled with borders of flowers and edged with trees along the house's fences. A little stream met the lawn where it dropped down to a lower level with a pretty white bridge leading over to the second half of the garden. The bottom half of the garden was a strip of decking with a rough sketch of table and chairs which Ginny assumed was where she came in, which merged into a dock onto the lake at the end of the garden. Neville had picked subtle colours for each section of the garden and had even thrown in a small playing area for children by the porch.

"Not bad, he might just be worth what the owners are paying him." Draco whistled, looking over Ginny's shoulder at the designs.

Ginny gave him a look and he shrugged, heading out onto the porch to sit down.

"I think we've earned a take-away today." He told Lyra, digging a pile of take-away menus out of a drawer in the kitchen.

"Oh God!"

Draco looked up at the sound of Ginny's exasperated outburst. He didn't have long to wait until she had flounced outside onto the porch looking every bit the sulky teenager he remembered from Hogwarts.

"What?" He prodded when she refused to tell him what had soured her mood.

Rayne bounced out onto the porch and scrambled into a seat between Draco and Ginny.

"She has to go to a party." He snickered, spilling most of his juice down himself as he tried to take a sip out of a much too big glass.

"So?" Draco frowned, mopping Rayne up absentmindedly and handing Lyra the menus in his hands.

"She HATES parties." Rayne informed him cheerfully, snatching a menu out of Lyra's hand so he could look at it.

"Why?" Draco asked, going back to looking at the menus now strewn across the entire table.

"I don't like being hawked around a bunch of middle-aged men being introduced as a divorcée." Ginny snapped. "Then I have to spend all night with them pawing me."

Draco laughed out loud at the look on her face and as she scowled darkly at him, Draco was hit with an idea.

"Why don't we go on a jaunt kids? Do you want to go to a party?"

Before Ginny could utter a word the children were on their feet screaming with delight. Lyra would be able to wear her new dress and Rayne was intent on the buffet which would be provided.

"Go get dressed." He told them, lifting Lyra down from her seat and watching them scurry off excitedly.

"This is not a good idea." Ginny fumed at him as he got to his feet.

"Don't be childish." He scolded, yanking her to her feet and shoving her towards the stairs.

She stomped up the stairs, muttering mutinously to herself all the way to her room.

* * *

"Are you ready yet?" Draco demanded, thumping his fist on Ginny's bedroom door most unceremoniously.

"You wanted to go to this thing so you can bloody well wait." She snapped, yanking open her door to find him resplendent in black velvet trousers and a dove-grey silk shirt under a black fitted blazer with silver lining which brought a sparkle to his eyes.

His appearance only made her scowl even more as she turned away from him to finish getting ready.

"Lyra!" Draco bellowed down the hallway. "I can't do my cufflinks."

Ginny bit back a laugh at the look on Draco's face as he continued to struggle with his emerald cufflinks. Rayne emerged before Lyra did in a midnight blue suit with a rather startling red shirt on. He looked immensely cheerful and immediately bounded onto his mother's bed.

"Your tie isn't straight." Ginny said, wandering over to him to tug his matching red tie into place.

She straightened up to find Draco eyeing her beadily as Lyra finally emerged looking a million dollars in an oyster-coloured silk ball-gown with a deep violet bow around her waist. She sighed and climbed up onto the chair at Ginny's dressing table to fasten her father's cufflinks.

"That's a pretty dress." She told Ginny with her back to her.

Ginny mumbled a thank you and moved in front of Draco to see into her mirror. Her dress was a deep king-fisher blue which plunged at the back right down to just past her waist but was particularly high at the front. It swept the floor in smooth folds and trailed a little behind her as she moved. She glared at herself in the mirror as she almost viciously applied blusher to her cheeks.

Bloody Malfoy. She ringed her eyes savagely with brown eyeliner so they dominated her face, the colour of her dress turning her eyes a clear emerald. Applying some clear mascara she found Draco looking at her in the mirror and she scowled at him.

"What?"

He put his head on one side and continued to survey her as Lyra finished with his cufflinks and gracefully slithered off the chair. Ginny turned her back on him again and rummaged around in her jewellry box for her diamond earrings and bracelet. Her hair was swept to one side with a jewelled clip and fell over her right shoulder in neat glossy waves as she clipped in her earrings.

"I was thinking you'd look delectable if you didn't have that childish scowl on your face." Draco murmured into her ear.

She elbowed him out of her way and retreated to her wardrobe to find some shoes. How dare he speak to her like that? What irritated her most was that he was right. She hated parties with a passion, all that sympathy over her divorce which inevitably mutated into lust from the men and then jealousy from the women in case she was after their husbands. It wasn't her fault her bloody husband had decided he was too young for a wife and child and had taken off to parts unknown. They had never really gotten on that well anyway, their marriage was a spur of the moment thing.

Returning to the present as she slipped her already aching feet into a pair of silver high heels which brought her almost to Draco's height, she found Rayne and Lyra having a heated argument about whose parent looked better.

"My mother always looks good." Rayne informed her haughtily, throwing his head back so his slicked back hair began to slip out of its style.

"Thank you, darling." She gushed, kissing his cheek and leaving a smudge of dark lipstick on his face.

"Alright alright let's get going shall we? Free bar." Draco informed Ginny as she gave him a funny look at his enthusiasm.

* * *

The party was in full swing by the time they had Apparated to the nearby village and been carried by an expensive coach up to the house. Lights were on in every window and as they made their way up the drive, a wizard with nothing but a hat to cover his decency hurtled past followed by a whooping pack of wizards. Draco hurriedly covered Lyra's eyes as they passed.

"Whose party is this again?" He asked Ginny as a loud splash behind them indicated that the wizards had plunged into the lake.

"Peregrine Pulborough's." Ginny replied, clinging onto Rayne's hand as he eyed the house dogs who were lazily sprawled over the front step apparently used to such rauceous behaviour. "No you'll ruin your suit."

She had already climbed over the dogs when she noticed Draco had stopped dead in his tracks and was gazing at her as though she was a hungry dragon.

"What?"

Rayne seized his mother's distracted moment and disappeared into the house to explore.

"You never said it was that woman's party." He said accusingly as Lyra stepped daintily over a snoring pug and also disappeared into the depths of the house.

"You never asked." She replied smoothly, amazed at the look on his face. "She's one of my biggest clients, she redecorates her entire house once a year."

He was about to reply and had even opened his mouth to do so when the returning dripping wet wizards swept him into their midst and over the threshhold of the house.

"What on Earth is wrong with you?" She muttered, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him into the foyer. "You wanted to come to this thing, not me."

Before he could snap back at her there was an ear-splitting scream of delight and their host appeared in the doorway, shoving aside an entwined couple in her haste.

"Draco Malfoy!" She screeched, advancing on them like a baby elephant. "DRACO MALFOY!"

Draco hurriedly shunted Ginny in front of him to evade the lumbering Peregrine as she waved her outstretched arms at him.

"You know Ginny Weasley, don't you?" He said, standing directly behind Ginny so Peregrine couldn't get at him.

"Don't be so coy, Draco." She cooed, reaching around Ginny and gripping him in a surprisingly iron-like grip, yanking him towards her.

She enfolded him in a smothering embrace and attacked him full-on the mouth. Ginny could barely remain on her feet she was laughing so hard at the sight of Draco struggling for air against the large heaving bosom crushing his chest.

"Yes well, alcohol." Draco muttered when she finally released him, taking a step back behind Ginny again. "I'll get you for this Weasley."

Ginny couldn't reply because she was still giggling furiously, Draco merely gave her a filthy look and darted faster than light into the crowd while Peregrine's attention was momentarily on a pool of Firewhiskey which had been splashed onto her white rug. When Ginny could finally keep her face straight she realized she was alone.

Sighing she began to weave her way through the crowds looking for a drink. She could see Rayne through a glass door playing poker with a tableful of wizards who were all cross-eyed from excessive alcohol. She grinned to herself, her son was a master at poker. Because of his age and his huge innocent eyes no one ever thought he was bluffing and his sharp eyes could pick up a person's tells instantly.

Finding a weary-looking witch masterminding a table full of drinks Ginny wandered over and poured herself a large cocktail. She made her way over to the set of full-length windows which looked out over the garden, lit up by miniature lights. Almost instantly a handsome wizard joined her and introduced himself as one of the richest wizards in Europe.

"Excuse me."

Ginny felt a hand on her waist and turned to find Draco leading her away from the far too arrogant wizard who would have scowled at them if doing so didn't make the lines on his forehead more prominent.

"You don't need to get drunk to have a good time at a party, you know." Draco informed her as she switched her empty glass for a fresh one on their way past the bar.

"Hard to argue with success." She told him flatly, taking a gulp of her drink and grinning as she watched Rayne happily scooping his winnings towards him.

"This party sucks." Draco said, his hand firmly on Ginny's elbow as she snorted at him.

"I told you… but you know what's best." She taunted, angry at the curling in her stomach as the heat from his hand scorched her tingling flesh.

"Oh Merlin." Draco hissed through gritted teeth as Peregrine appeared through the crowd and headed directly for them again.

Before Ginny could sidle away and leave him to her mercy as punishment for being so attractive he had rammed her against a wall so she couldn't move and pressed his lips to hers. She was so rigid with shock she couldn't react to the softness of his lips, his sharp scent and the heat from his body against her. He lifted his head a fraction so he could determine in the mirror above her head whether Peregrine had moved on or not. She had.

"Take your hands off me." Ginny hissed at him, pushing against his chest.

He took a step back but continued to stare at her coolly, not missing the rapid pulse flickering at her throat or the flush in her cheeks.

"How dare you." She spluttered, her hand to her chest in the vain attempt to still her pounding heart.

"Calm down, Weasley. I wasn't really kissing you."

Ginny flushed angrily at his words, still leaning against the wall because she wasn't sure if her legs could hold her yet.

"That is not the point!" She snapped. "What about the children?"

He cocked his head to the side and continued to stare at her, waiting for her explanation.

"What if they'd seen! I don't know about your daughter but my son has had enough disruption in his life already without seeing something like that and getting mistaken ideas you stupid fool."

Ginny stomped past him and back into the crowds angrily, upset with herself.

* * *

Draco unlocked the door to the house with great difficulty, due to the sleeping Lyra curled against his shoulder, hours later. He had seen little of Ginny after her outburst but had been too busy avoiding Peregrine to keep an eye on her if she insisted on behaving like a child.

After he had put Lyra to bed and changed into a pair of dark grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt, he headed downstairs to do some work. He didn't feel remotely tired and apparently neither did Ginny. She was curled up on the edge of the porch, one leg dangling over the edge as she focused on something on her lap.

"You'll catch a cold." He pointed out, indicating her bare feet and arms.

She shrugged without looking up from whatever she was working on. As she shifted a little something fell out of the files on her knee and fluttered to the floor. Draco picked it up and studied it briefly before handing it back to her. It was a photograph of the family who had lived in the house before it had been abandoned. When he moved closer to her he could see that she had been arranging the photographs in order based on the dates written on the back of them, securing them back into the albums.

"You don't have to do that."

Ginny shrugged her shoulders, tapping the last photograph with her wand and sticking it into the album.

"I don't mind." She said and Draco sighed, turning back to the house and going into the living room which was still a complete mess.

He was sitting on the dusty couch which was not the slightest bit comfortable anymore when he heard the doorbell ring. He was about to get up and bollock whoever it was in case they disturbed the children but Ginny appeared in the doorway first. She was holding a pack of beers and a huge pizza box.

"What's this?" He asked, lounging back against the couch with an amused look on his face.

"An apology." She said, her face burning with embarrassment as she sat down next to him.

"I overreacted earlier. I'm sorry." She muttered, refusing to look him in the eye as he continued to stare at her with a stupid grin on his face.

"Painful?" He asked, enjoying making her squirm as she glowered at him with her head hanging.

"Yes." She snapped, biting her lip when he chuckled at her. "Well?"

He rolled his eyes and snatched a beer from her, still with a stupid grin on his face when she finally cracked a smile at him.

"Apology accepted."

While he tucked into the pizza she had brought, she noticed the sketch-pad on his knee. She pulled it towards her, flipping through the various sketches he had made.

"They're not done yet." He told her, chewing thoughtfully on a mouthful of pizza.

They were half started sketches of each of the rooms, some designs for the fireplaces they were putting in and different window shapes.

"You're good." She said in surprise, reaching a sketch of Lyra with her curls blowing in a breeze and a cheeky grin on her face.

Her face turned scarlet when she stumbled onto a rather explicit portrait of a naked Perdita and she hurriedly flipped the page over.

"You don't need to sound so surprised, Weasley, it's not very flattering." He said huffily, diving into another slice of the best pizza he'd ever had.

She rolled her eyes and handed him the sketch-pad back, taking a sip of her beer and accepting the slice of pizza he was waving at her.

"So what's with the overreaction?" He finally asked.

She sighed and put her half-eaten slice of pizza down.

"I haven't been with a man since my husband left." She told him, gulping some of her beer down nervously.

"At all?" Draco gaped, his pizza slice drooping in his fingers and the toppings steadily sliding down the slice.

"Nope." She said levelly, looking him in the shocked eye. "Not a date, not a kiss… nothing."

He mouthed for a moment before shoving his pizza slice in his mouth before it could fall apart.

"That's over a year ago." He finally continued, licking the pizza sauce off his fingers thoughtfully.

She nodded, amused at the look on his face as she opened another beer for each of them.

"I guess I decided to concentrate on Rayne instead." After a long moment of silence Ginny broached the subject she was dying to ask him about. "So what happened with Perdita? I mean you're here with your daughter but not your wife?"

He didn't reply for a long time, he just sat and sipped his beer as she watched him patiently waiting for an answer.

"Lust at first sight I guess." He eventually replied, running a hand back through his hair. "When we first met she was so gorgeous and self-assured. I didn't realise she was a bitch who'd completely rob me of my already fragile faith in humans. Being faithful was never her strong point."

He broke off and shrugged one shoulder and Ginny reached out, putting her hand on his knee lightly.

"I know what you mean. Louis and I never got on particularly, we only got married because we thought it would be a fun idea. Then I got pregnant when I was eighteen. Louis was more like a brother than a father to Rayne, they were on first name terms."

They sat in silence for a while, brooding on their bad choice in partners until the lights began to flicker.

"What's that?" Ginny asked nervously, shifting uncomfortably on the couch.

Draco got to his feet and ventured towards the door.

"I don't like this." Ginny whispered, creeping after him and latching onto his arm.

She knew ghosts existed and couldn't hurt her but they still totally freaked her out.

"Do you see that?" Ginny breathed, pointing a wavering finger at a woman in the hallway mirror.

They moved closer, Ginny's hand trembling on Draco's forearm as they stumbled over the debris littering the hall.

"It looks like… that woman." Draco muttered as they got closer.

She was looking at them steadily out of the mirror. She looked like someone's reflection, not at all like a ghost.

"She looks so sad." Ginny said, moving closer to the mirror.

"Mum!"

Ginny jumped at the sound of Rayne's voice. When she turned back to the mirror the woman had gone. Racing upstairs Ginny found Rayne standing in his doorway in his pyjamas, rubbing his eyes.

"What's wrong sweetheart?" She cooed, folding him into her arms and nuzzling against him.

"I had a bad dream."

She smiled comfortingly at him, running her hands through his hair and murmuring endearments to him.

"It's over, let's go back to bed."

She got to her feet to lead him back into his room but he clung on to her, his little hands tangling into her hair.

"Alright, alright." She said, grinning to herself as she carried him into her room and settled him into her bed while she got into her pyjamas.

* * *

**dristi** – thanks here's an update

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	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter, would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'Leave Out All the Rest' by Linkin Park

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter Four** – **Leave Out All the Rest**

I dreamed I was missing, you were so scared  
But no one would listen 'cause no one else cared  
After my dreaming I woke with this fear  
What am I leaving when I'm done here  
So if you're asking me I want you to know  
When my time comes  
Forget the wrong that I've done  
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed  
And don't resent me  
And when you're feeling empty  
Keep me in your memory  
Leave out all the rest  
Don't be afraid  
I've taken my beating  
I've shared what I made  
I'm strong on the surface not all the way through  
I've never been perfect but neither have you  
So if you're asking me  
I want you to know  
When my time comes  
Forget the wrong that I've done  
Help me leave behind some  
Reasons to be missed  
Don't resent me  
And when you're feeling empty  
Keep me in your memory  
Leave out all the rest  
Forgetting all the hurt inside  
You've learned to hide so well  
Pretending  
Someone else can come and save me from myself  
I can't be who you are  
When my time comes  
Forget the wrong that I've done  
Help me leave behind some  
Reasons to be missed

Ginny slouched back against the mountain of cushions propping her up in bed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She had been studying the notes she had found in the attic and had gotten way too immersed in them. There were diaries, newspaper clippings and letters which she had been steadily making her way through. They didn't make much sense but they were interesting nonetheless. As she stifled a yawn she held another letter up to the flickering candlelight.

_Dearest Ili,_

_I just do not understand your resistance, my love. This is a blessing. I am honoured to have been chosen. So many others prayed for this gift but it is mine to honour. You of all people should realise how important this is to our very survival, the survival of our kind._

_I will call upon you tonight, you must see me._

_Aislin_

"_Light and darkness guide the way"_

There was a strange symbol beneath the signature, an oval pierced by a slender triangle with a swirl intertwining both. Ginny had seen the symbol in several letters, most of which appeared to be addressed to this "Ili" from "Aislin" and they were always signed in the same way.

Sighing, Ginny tucked the letters back into the folder and propped it up on her bedside table. She stretched luxuriously and snuggled down into the quilt she had brought from home, which smelt like her beloved house.

* * *

She felt like she'd only just gotten to sleep when she was being brought rudely back to reality by a furious thundering on the front door. Staggering out of bed and cursing Draco for sleeping so soundly, Ginny tripped over quite a few things on her way to the front door. Yanking it open she found a much taller absolutely stunning woman on the doorstep. She had her hands on her hips, emphasising her large breasts straining under the skin-tight white dress, and was tapping her foot in a designer stiletto impatiently.

"Finally. For a house this big the help is nothing to brag about." She drawled in an arrogant voice with an underlying mocking tone to it.

Shoving Ginny aside she prowled into the parlour, which had developed even more debris from the upper floors in the month they'd been there.

"This is the dump my husband abandoned me for?" She said scornfully, pushing her dark glasses up into her hair.

Ginny snarled back at her that they would hardly have been employed to redesign a brand new house now would they. She was furiously angry that she had been dragged out of bed for this wretched wench and, a little voice niggled at the back of her head, that Perdita should catch her with unwashed hair, stubbly legs and huge dark rings under her eyes. Next to the immaculately primped and manicured Perdita she felt terrible, and naturally she hated herself for that.

"Your husband is on the second floor somewhere." Ginny snapped, waving her hand at Draco's wing of the house and flouncing off. "Try not to break a nail."

When she emerged showered, shaved and reeking of scent she found the Malfoys out on the porch. The garden was being slowly transformed into Neville's design over the past month and the scent of the freshly mown grass was heavy on the air. Perdita was sitting very straight-backed in her chair with her long long legs on show under her skirt. Her rich dark hair the colour of dark chocolate was piled up on her head leaving her long white neck exposed. Her glasses were now perched on Lyra's head leaving her wickedly enchanting navy blue eyes to dominate her face. She was so beautiful it was easy to see why Draco had married her.

Taking a breath to gather herself Ginny moved out onto the porch to join them, feeling incessantly frumpy in her pale yellow summer dress with her hair still wet from her shower and a large bruise darkening her shoulder from where she'd stumbled on an insecure floor yesterday.

"I suppose this place is worth it." Perdita was saying coolly, eyeing Draco under her long lashes as he handed her an iced tea.

"It will be." Ginny said, equally coolly although her hand gripped her own glass tightly.

She had grown very fond of the old house since they'd been there and defending it was the perfect way to snap at Perdita without reproach. Watching Draco lighting Perdita's cigarette with an unnaturally still hand, Ginny felt something heavy drop into her stomach. He was still in love with her. _Of course he is_, she told herself angrily, _she's his wife_.

"I thought you'd be done by now, Draco." She purred, drawing on her cigarette until her chest heaved. "You're so talented at finishing so very early."

There was a suggestion in her tone which made Ginny flinch but Draco's face was impassive. An owl landed on the table, nearly taking Ginny's head off in its hurry as Perdita snatched the letter it clutched from it. Her scarlet lips curled into a predatory smile as she read the letter, throwing it down onto the table when she was done.

"I won't stay for lunch, dear husband." She drawled, staring at him mockingly from under her lashes.

Ginny's face paled when she caught sight of Perdita's letter. It was a very explicit love letter from one of the top European Quidditch players. Perdita obviously had no intentions of removing it from plain sight so Ginny leaned forward to snatch it away from Lyra, flushing to the roots of her hair when she saw Perdita's hand caressing her husband's crotch under the table.

"Lyra, why don't we go and get Rayne out of bed." Ginny said in an unnaturally high voice as she whisked the little girl away from her parents before she could see Draco snatching Perdita's hand away angrily.

_What a complete bitch_, she fumed, shaking with anger at Perdita's selfish behaviour. She had obviously only dropped by on her way to go screw some bloody Quidditch player senseless. Ginny felt jealousy seep into her anger, she had almost despaired of finding another man by now.

* * *

"Are they fighting again?"

Ginny jumped and turned around to see Lyra in the attic doorway with a martyred look on her face. She was looking unusually vulnerable due to her pale wan face against the black t-shirt she had on and Ginny's gentle heart won out.

"I don't know, darling."

She sighed and put down her paintbrush. The few changes Draco had decided on had been made to the attic and it was now Ginny's territory. Over the past week she had been working flat out setting the base coat on the walls and the ceiling in the freshest mint green. She had left the beams their natural deep brown colour and had already varnished them and pinned big sheets for protection over them.

Lyra didn't say anything to her, she crossed the room and picked up a paintbrush, sitting cross-legged on the floor and carefully filling in the gaps the large paintbrush had left.

"Where's Rayne?" She asked, breaking the silence and watching Ginny carefully through her appraising glowing eyes.

"He's in the garden bullying Neville about a Quidditch pitch." Ginny grinned, waving a paintbrush at the almost floor to ceiling windows next to them which looked out of the garden.

In the distance she could see Neville's army of gardeners carefully planting the plants and trees which had been equally carefully chosen by Neville. Rayne was hovering around Neville, who was currently overseeing the placement of an herbaceous border by the porch.

"I like Neville." Lyra said firmly, putting her paintbrush down and leaning back to look up at the expanse of wall before her.

Ginny bit her lip trying to stifle her laughter at what Draco would say if he could hear his daughter. Whatever attraction or crush she had developed for Draco she had firmly pushed to the back of her mind lately, not least because Perdita was still firmly in residence currently lounging topless on the porch and causing a passing gardener to walk his wheelbarrow slap through Neville's new herbaceous border. A little voice also smugly informed her that she was also violently opposed to any close relationship developing between Draco and herself because every time he saw her she was covered in dust and sweat with greasy hair and bruises from heavy lifting. She must try not to be so vain, she thought ruefully.

"This is a nice colour." Lyra commented, watching as Ginny triumphantly painted in the last section of the wall right up by the ceiling.

Ginny stepped away from the wall and tossed her brush onto the pile of used brushes in one corner. She flexed her aching hands and shoulders, looking around at the room. Her idea of a relaxing room had prevailed and the thickest softest white carpet spread the length of the room, currently covered with a protective plastic sheet. She had already bought a set of two sofas and two huge arm chairs you literally sank into consisting of wide cream and emerald stripes and which were being delivered tomorrow. The skylights in the ceiling, which were thrown open to relieve the paint fumes, were shaded with cream blinds and the door had been jazzed up by being dragged white and decorated with stencils of an elaborate delicate ivy design which crept up from the floor over the panels of the door.

She had also bought an adorable shoulder-high statue of Hestia, Greek goddess of the home, in smooth green marble which was situated under one of the skylights as a focal point of the room. Ginny had excelled herself with her designs on the walls. The mint green was the basecoat for an exquisite, intricate mural. Fields stuffed full of beautiful wild flowers and wilful trees covered the lower sections of the walls and blossomed into depictions of frolicking nymphs, fairies and many other magical creatures with beautiful faces and long elegant limbs. Ginny couldn't take the credit for the actual painting of the murals though, those were the work of Cressida her best friend who was disgustingly talented but much too scared of rejection to take her painting seriously as a profession.

A square of floor had been paved and a blank canvas on an easel stood in the centre of it. Dark green bookshelves were crammed on either side with all of Ginny's favourite novels, poetry books and huge books filled with paintings and architecture sketches. A yoga mat was rolled up and placed on a specially designed shelf with several different exercise manuals against one corner. There was a large white-washed writing desk with several drawers and different compartments hidden in it in one corner, with a tall hugely comfortable chair. After her own hobbies she had drawn a blank about what else to include in the relaxation room, Draco had suggested a bunch of x-rated comics so she had refused to ask his opinion on anything anymore.

"I think this room is officially finished." Ginny said slowly, almost regretfully.

No matter what happened with the rest of the house this would always be her favourite room. As she ushered Lyra out of the room to keep it clean she rearranged the white roses tinged with pink in a tall green glass vase on the table by the windows. As they descended the stairs she waved her wand at the room and the protective covers disappeared.

"Let's celebrate the first finished room of Hope Mansion." She told Lyra cheerfully, sending her off to get changed and round up her father from the room he was working on.

* * *

She emerged from her shower feeling satisfied with her hard work. She loved her job and as was her wont she couldn't wait to get into the room Draco was currently working on sketches of.

She changed into a clinging t-shirt dress which fell to mid-thigh and left her now brown shoulders and arms bare. Her hair was in dire need of a haircut, she decided as she checked her reflection in her mirror. It had grown so much it billowed over her shoulders and framed her face like a mane of tangled fire.

"Mum!" Rayne burst through the door with an incredulous look on his face. "We're having take-away?"

She laughed and nodded, seized by a sudden gush of love for her beloved son. She swept him into her arms and spun in rapid circles with him. She took his hand and led him downstairs in search of Draco and Lyra. They were outside on the porch and from the grim look on Draco's face, he had just been arguing with his wife again.

"Perdita." Ginny said icily, gratified to see that Draco had apparently forced his wife into a bikini top to protect her dignity in front of the children.

Draco, who was still reeling from a shattering argument with his wife, was taken aback at the sight of Ginny. The dress she had thrown on purely to keep cool in the Indian summer heat emphasised her legs, the shape of her body and the glorious colour of her hair. He even noticed her vulnerable dusty feet with coral painted nails glimmering in the late afternoon sun.

Also, after the vicious needling contempt he had received from his wife over the last few days, he had become very aware of how gentle and soothing Ginny's presence had become and how comforting the knowing look she had just given him really was. Perdita was apparently already well stuck into the alcohol, with a huge jug on the table by her side to keep her company.

"Are we having a take-away?" She asked slyly, pointedly letting her eyes flicker over Ginny's voluptuous body.

Ginny bristled at her but decided not to rise and turned to face Draco, who had a hand on Lyra's shoulder. Ginny had recently discovered that the confident and out-spoken Lyra was almost shy around her mother; desperate for her mother's attention but too wary of her to pursue it. It was not a healthy family dynamic and Ginny's appreciation of Draco's need to protect his daughter had drastically increased lately.

"What do you fancy?" She asked, wondering if she could actually eat in Perdita's poisonous presence.

Perdita snorted into her cocktail, gulping some down and eyeing a furiously red-faced nearby gardener who was pruning a bush by the porch.

"I think we should go out." Draco said flatly, almost dragging Lyra away from his wife who was once again easing off her bikini top and staring boldly at the closest gardener who deadheaded a rose in his excitement.

Ginny had to stop herself from throwing Perdita's alcohol all over her hateful face as she watched her husband stalk off angrily. Deciding that scratching Perdita's eyes out would not be the best idea since she still had to live with Draco for the best part of a year, Ginny take a deep breath to calm herself. Turning away from Perdita in disgust Ginny led Rayne out into the lobby where Draco and Lyra were waiting.

"I'll just get some shoes." Ginny mumbled, wishing she knew what to say to take the hollow look out of Draco's eyes.

* * *

"Where do you want to eat?" Ginny finally asked when they were safely in the carriage he had ordered from the village.

No one answered her as the carriage bounced along the track, the children sensing the tension that oozed out of Draco. He was furious with himself for still loving his wife so desperately despite the way she treated him and the state of his marriage. Ginny decided to take matters into her own hands and she directed the driver quietly.

They pulled up outside a long road of brightly lit windows, an entire street of restaurants for Draco to pick from. When he still didn't indicate any interest in the topic, Ginny sighed and trooped them all into the nearest restaurant. The children went into raptures at the decorations and the waiters and waitresses in sombreros. They were settled into a comfortable booth near the bar where Ginny ordered a large double scotch for Draco. It seemed to work.

"Where are we?" He asked, looking around at the rowdy mostly drunk customers surrounding them.

"A Mexican restaurant." Ginny informed him, scanning the menu in the dim light from the string of multi-coloured donkey-shaped lights above their heads. "Haven't you ever had Mexican before?"

"No." Draco said, holding his fork up to the light and squinting at the shining silver for dirt.

Ginny took the opportunity to order for everyone, well used to Draco and Lyra's likes and dislikes after cooking for each other for so long. While they waited for their food to arrive Ginny kept the cheery conversation flowing as Draco lapsed into moody silence every now and then. The children were given a dot-to-dot picture and some crayons to amuse them. Rayne had fluttered his long eyelashes at their waitress and was now peering out from under her sombrero at his picture, tongue between his teeth as he concentrated. Their food was surprisingly quickly prepared and Draco prodded the large plate of varied fajitas in the centre of the table with the tip of his fork thoughtfully. Ginny shook her head and tucked a napkin into Rayne's collar as he fell on the fajitas like a starved animal.

"You eat with your hands?" Draco asked haughtily, staring down his long Greek nose at Rayne's sticky fingers.

"That's how you eat fajitas, it's more fun that way." Ginny told him airily, scooping a fajita up and biting into it with relish. "Snob."

Draco rolled his eyes, watching as Ginny and the children wolfed their food leaving sauce and cheese all over themselves.

"Not exactly the food you'd eat on a date." He pointed out as Ginny managed to get relish all over her chin as she ate.

"Well I don't know about you, Malfoy, but I don't usually bring my son on dates with me." She shot back, wiping her chin and throwing the napkin at him. "Try it."

Draco heaved a sigh and picked a fajita up warily, examining it as though it was likely to charge at him. He was about to take a bite when Lyra dropped the rest of her fajita into her lap, no doubt staining her dress permanently.

"I do not anticipate this ending well." He said, sighing and taking a bite as though he were embarking on his last meal.

* * *

Ginny was stirred from her disturbing dreams and she sat up, not knowing what had woken her. She stared around the room in confusion for a moment, her eyes straining in the dark to identify something. Her room looked much the same as when she had crawled into bed only three hours ago. Her work clothes were in a pile on the floor, Rayne's clothes which were covered in fajitas were hanging out of her wash basket, the letters she had been reading were in a pile on the floor by her bed and her window was open a little to let the cooling night breeze in.

She frowned and rubbed her eyes tiredly, at a loss as to what could have jolted her awake so suddenly. As her mind slowly reminded her of the strange dreams filled with danger that she had been caught in, she shivered gratefully and got slowly to her feet.

She was coming out of the bathroom with a glass of water when she saw a shadow flitting around her room. She froze in fear, her mind clearly recalling her wand tossed haphazardly onto her bedside table at least three feet away. Her skin prickled and sweat broke out on her skin as she felt something in her room. She carefully put her glass down on the floor and dropped into a crouch, crawling towards her room silently.

She could vaguely see something which was a deeper black than the shadows of her room and she bit her lip in fear. She had fought Death Eaters before but she had a feeling that whatever this was, she wouldn't be able to do much to defend herself against it.

She crept forward quietly, feeling along the floorboards with her hands to avoid disturbing anything in her path. She mentally cursed herself when a floorboard beneath her creaked loudly, the noise whipping through the silent house. The shadow slowed down and Ginny ducked her head down against the floor, peering around the open door which she was crouched behind.

It seemed to be surveying the room, whatever it was and she held her breath and kept her face pressed against the old wood of the floor. When she finally looked up it was gone and her room was as it should be. She got shakily to her feet, grabbing her discarded glass and gulping some water down to calm her shaken nerves.

As she was crossing her room she saw something breaking up the hazy light outside her bedroom door and she paused. She quietly placed her glass on her bedside table and retrieved her wand. Gripping it tightly in her hand she moved silently to the wall next to her door. Taking a deep breath she threw the door open, yelping in fear when a small lump on the floor outside her door stared at her with big eyes.

"Lyra?!" She gasped, her hand shaking on the broken doorknob and making it rattle.

Upon closer inspection it appeared that Lyra had been outside her door for a while. She had tear tracks down her face which were streaked with dust and her little fingers trembled on the blanket which she clutched around herself.

"What are you doing here, darling?" Ginny whispered, kneeling down in front of her and smoothing her tear-matted hair away from her face.

"I had a nightmare." She breathed, staring at Ginny earnestly. "I went to my Daddy but they were fighting. I didn't know where to go." Her lower lip trembled but her face was defiant as she stared at Ginny.

Ginny sighed and rubbed her back soothingly, hoisting her up in her arms. She lit the end of her wand and trudged wearily down the hallway towards Draco's wing of the house. Everything was silent as she made her way through the debris, jumping at the slight noises echoing from outside the house every now and then.

As they reached Draco's room Lyra turned her head into Ginny's shoulder, her fingers biting into her arm.

"I hope they're not fighting." She murmured against her bare skin and Ginny felt the tear that burned against her.

_Or doing anything else_, she thought grimly, scowling at the very idea of it. She tapped lightly on the door, listening for any response from inside. After a moment she rapped harder on the door, holding her breath. Eventually Draco tugged the door open and squinted in the bright light, shading his eyes with a hand.

"Yes?" He demanded grumpily, only aware of a vague shape before him due to the almost-blinding he'd just received.

Ginny stared at him with her mouth open, apparently the delay had been caused by Draco searching for some pants. He was standing in the doorway completely naked but for a pair of, no doubt expensive, black boxers that were hanging perilously low on his hips. His hair was ruffled and he had the shape of his hand imprinted on his face where he'd obviously been lying on it.

"Yes, Weasley?" He repeated when his eyes adjusted to the light, the smirk on his face making her flush as though he could really tell what she had been thinking.

"I found this outside my room, I think it's yours." She said haughtily, handing over Lyra who peered nervously over her father's shoulder and into the dark room beyond.

"Apparently crossing this house in the middle of the night, alone and in the dark was less terrifying after a nightmare then listening to you and your wife arguing." She snapped, angry at herself for being so attracted to him.

She regretted the words the instant they left her mouth when she saw the dark look on his face.

"Thank you." He said coldly, cradling Lyra to him and retreating into his room.

The door closed in her face with a final sounding snap and she sighed, scrubbing her eyes with her hands wearily. _That was an awful thing to say_, she thought angrily, stomping back across the house to her room.

The first light of dawn was beginning to creep in through the dusty windows as she reached her room. She tossed her wand onto her desk and climbed gratefully back into bed. She screeched in fear and fell backwards out of the bed when something moved beneath her covers. A lump which had previously gone unnoticed squirming before her. She was about to lunge for her wand when Rayne's sleepy head appeared from under the covers.

He looked down at her dozily, his hair sticking up every which way and sleep clouding his eyes.

"I had a bad dream." He told her and her angry face softened.

She got to her feet and slid back into bed, feeling Rayne lock onto her with his arms and legs and snuggle into her side. Apparently no one in this house was getting a good sleep tonight.

* * *

**sarahbeanxx** – thanks I'm glad you like it

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	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter, would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'Rescue' by Uncle Kracker

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter Five** – **Rescue**

I stayed out late last night  
But I nothing could drink  
Could help me drink you off my mind  
Everywhere I looked, I saw your face  
And I wonder, and I wonder  
If there still might be  
A little space in your heart for me  
'Cause I'm so cold, I'm so alone  
And I miss you, babe  
So won't you come to my rescue  
Shake this pain from my soul  
And take this fool back in your heart baby  
I'll go crazy if you don't  
'Cause I'm a mess here without you  
Ain't no pill for this pain  
So please, please come to my rescue baby  
Make it right away  
I was a fool to leave  
Leave behind everything that meant everything to me  
Every day and night my heart pays the price  
And I'm out here, stranded out here  
On this lonely road, I'm so lost won't you lead me home  
I need you back, need one more chance  
And I miss you, babe  
So won't you come to my rescue  
Shake this pain from my soul  
And take this fool back in your heart baby  
I'll go crazy if you don't  
'Cause I'm a mess here without you  
Ain't no pill for this pain  
So please, please come to my rescue baby  
Make it right away  
I'm drowning baby  
I need you to save me, yeah  
Don't leave me like this  
Throw me a line, baby one more time  
Won't you come to my rescue  
Shake this pain from my soul  
And take this fool back in your heart baby  
I'll go crazy if you don't  
'Cause I'm a mess here without you  
Ain't no pill for this pain  
So please, please come to my rescue baby  
Make it right away  
Make it right away

Draco was sincerely hoping that if he ignored them long enough they'd stop arguing. It didn't seem to be working and he couldn't concentrate on his calculations. Where was Weasley? She usually managed to shut them up. In the end he threw down his pencil, stamped across the room and threw open his window. Rayne and Lyra were screaming and shouting and making excited noises he'd never even heard before as they dodged out of the spraying hosepipe's way. Neville had enchanted it for them and it was pursuing them around the immaculate lawns.

Perdita was asleep on a sun lounger on the terrace below him, face down but bare-backed. He glared at her for a moment, considering throwing some water on her. He reluctantly decided against it and scanned the grounds for Ginny. She'd started running in one of the outer fields as often as she could manage, as much to avoid Perdita as keep in shape. She seemed to be making her way back to the house and he headed downstairs.

When he reached the kitchen Lyra had her head buried in the freezer and Rayne was sitting on the counter, swinging his legs happily and babbling on about the newest broom on the market. Draco briefly wondered how he'd got up there before dismissing it and physically lifting his daughter out of the freezer.

"What are you doing?"

She peered at him shrewdly, cocking her head to the side so her wet hair dripped onto the floor besides her.

"Looking for ice lollies." She told him sweetly, opening her eyes as big as she could and pursing her pretty lips.

He frowned at her briefly then shrugged and let her get back to her search. He handed Ginny a glass of ice water when she reached the kitchen and she gulped it down gratefully as Rayne told her all about the hose. Draco accepted an ice lolly from Lyra, helping her climb onto one of the high chairs at the breakfast bar and unwrapping the lolly with a thoughtful air. He was looking at the sweat beading Ginny's freckled shoulders and darkening her grey tank-top. Her hair was pulled back in a messy high ponytail and it was dark with sweat. He was thinking that in all the years he had lived with Perdita he had never seen her anything less than pristine. He'd seen Ginny looking scruffy, sweaty and bruised. This was a new concept for him. He couldn't work out why it pleased him the way it did. She must have seen him looking because her cheeks had gone pink.

"Do I smell or something? I was going to take a shower before we go."

He gave himself a shake and shook his head, sticking the ice into his mouth so he didn't have to say anything. She helped Rayne down from the counter and they disappeared upstairs. Lyra was staring at him when he turned back to her.

"You don't know anything about girls." She told him, heading upstairs to get changed.

They had a meeting with the contractors in a couple of hours and since Perdita was in no fit state to look after two children, they were all going together. There was a high possibility of something going wrong, Draco mused as he chewed on the ice.

* * *

"Stuck up, prig." Ginny hissed, scrubbing at her hair viciously. "I suppose Malfoy's don't sweat. They probably don't need to exercise either. Jerk."

She calmed a little as she rinsed out her hair and climbed out of the shower. She'd been in there longer than she'd thought. She barely had an hour to get herself and Rayne ready. With Rayne that would never be long enough. She hurried to his room still in her towel and forced him into the shower then returned back to her own to find something to wear. She had been strictly informed by Malfoy to dress "pretty". She was half tempted to go in her sweats and see what he thought of that but it probably wouldn't do very much to ingratiate her with the money behind the house.

In the end she decided on a short-sleeved cream blouse tucked into a buttery-yellow pencil skirt that pinched in at her waist and knees. She really didn't want to force her hot aching feet into the sunflower spotted white killer heels which went with the outfit. She gave a martyred sigh and pulled them on as the clock chimed loudly downstairs. She didn't really like using magic on her hair since she wasn't very good at the beauty spells but desperate times… She scrunched her eyes up and concentrated. In the end her hair was halfway between big bouncy curls and being straight and it refused to stay behind her ears.

"You can see your panty line in that skirt."

She jumped so violently the eyeliner in her hand jabbed her sharply in the eye and she cursed. Loudly. She grabbed a tissue and held it to her streaming eye, trying to force as much venom into the glare her uninjured eye was aiming in his direction. Draco didn't apologize, just pulled his wand out and pointed it at the tissue. The pain eased and when Ginny removed the tissue her eye was only slightly reddened. She didn't say thank you.

"Don't you knock?" She snapped, turning her back on him and rooting through her jewellery box.

"Your door was open." He reached around her and retrieved a pair of dangling single drop pearl earrings. "Try these."

Ginny was trying to gather all of the most hateful words she had in her vocabulary to throw at him when he pulled something out of her drawer. It was a thick chunky brown waist-cinching belt. He approached her as she was putting in her earrings in front of the bathroom mirror. He wrapped the belt around her waist, not seeming to notice when her fingers stopped moving on her ears. His hands were larger than she'd thought and slightly roughened by his work. His eyes were focused on the belt in the mirror but she was watching the way his hair brushed his eyes.

"Is that too tight?" She didn't trust her voice not to wobble so she just shook her head and he drew away from her. "You'll do."

She bristled at him and tried to storm out of the bathroom but her skirt was too tight and she was forced to take smaller steps. He easily caught up with her. He handed her his cufflinks and held out his cuffs with a winning grin.

"So you didn't just come here to insult me." She snapped, accepting the cufflinks he handed her and yanking him towards her.

He gave her an inscrutable look as she bent over his wrist, her hair brushing his hands. His fingertips brushed the swell of her breast and she tingled. Her fingers were fumbling with the expensive emerald cufflinks and she focused on the buttons of his shirt to keep her concentration.

"I didn't insult you."

She glowered at him as she finished with his cuffs and he took a step back from her. She turned her back on him firmly and dug through the box at the end of her bed for a suitable purse. When she finally found a cream purse, which had been only a little bit battered in the move, and turned back to him he was looking at her oddly. There were pink spots on his cheekbones.

"You're staring at me a lot today." There was more than a little accusation in her voice and he hurriedly shook thoughts of her tight skirt out of his head.

"We're going to be late." He said a little stiffly, leaving her room in three long strides.

Ginny found herself completely baffled and a little bit dizzy.

Rayne appeared in the doorway in his favourite pair of Quidditch robes with a plastic mask of Spock perched on his head. He was completely enthralled by the Muggle DVD of "Star Trek" that Harry had bought him for his birthday. He was in love with all things sci-fi. Whatever that was. It kept him quiet for hours at a time and that was quite enough for her.

"Why are you wearing that?" Ginny asked faintly, increasingly aware of the time as Lyra dashed past her door with her hair in magical rollers.

"It's comfortable." Rayne told her as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Ginny took his hand and led him back to his room as quickly as she could in her skirt and heels. His suit was hanging up on the bathroom door and she hurried him out of the robes.

"Rayne, I love you, but I am on the edge. It's hot, I'm in the most uncomfortable outfit I've ever owned or worn, since the night you were conceived and I have to smile. A lot. Do not test me."

His face had darkened and a fit was oncoming but the look on her face deterred him somewhat. He still folded his arm sulkily and pouted at her though.

"These clothes make me look stupid."

She grinned at the back of his head as she fastened his tie from behind him.

"Well the people we're meeting work with Muggles. So we have to look the part."

He huffed and muttered something under his breath but he grabbed his jacket and followed her downstairs without arguing. Draco and Lyra were waiting in the front hallway for them, both immaculate in different shades of green. Lyra looked wonderfully fresh and pretty in a pale green summer dress with flowers embroidered in yellow thread and matching ribbons in her platinum curls. Ginny was about to ask Draco if he wasn't going to be too hot in his dark green blazer when Perdita appeared on the stairs.

"Is the carriage here?"

Since Draco looked too pole-axed to speak, the task was left to Ginny.

"You're coming?"

Perdita appraised her coolly with her blank eyes and then moved straight past her. She was covered up for a change in an expensive shocking pink suit. The shorts stopped just above her knees and were loose without losing their shape, like her jacket. Her white vest was high-necked and her family crest glittered on a chain around her throat. Even her feet were covered in high heeled white pumps and her hair was neatly pinned back in a smooth chignon. If Ginny had only met her that moment she never would have imagined her capable of topless sunbathing, excessive drinking and lewd public behaviour.

"I'm accompanying my husband to a business meeting." Perdita purred, running her nails along Draco's forearm.

Ginny glanced at Draco but his face was stony and impassive, his grip had tightened on Lyra's hand but she was too busy gazing up at her mother to notice. Rayne broke the uncomfortable silence by demanding ice cream for good behaviour and they headed out to the waiting carriage.

* * *

"Mr Malfoy." Draco winced at the slightly moist hand clutching his and withdrew it as soon as decently possible.

The head of the investors was a very tall old man who walked hunched over to diminish his considerable height. He seemed like the sweet little granddad type and Ginny took to him immediately. He frowned at Perdita's purring undertone and gave her best seductive eyes a look of thorough distrust. Draco found himself warming to the old duffer. He led them into a large conference room which was mainly windows with a long shiny table stretching its length. A pretty receptionist whisked the children away into a far corner where they were given books and crayons to occupy them.

Draco might not have had a fun childhood but he had been raised a gentleman and he pulled out Ginny's chair for her first. Her hand touched his briefly and he frowned at the way his stomach shivered. When she was seated he turned to Perdita but she had already taken her own seat and was smirking at him significantly.

The meeting passed in a blur of questions, queries and negotiations. Ginny managed to answer mechanically and daydream her way through it wishing her skirt wasn't quite so tight in this hot weather. She also wished that Draco wasn't quite so close in his seat besides her. She shifted in her plush chair and subtly manoeuvred herself away from him. It must be all this heat. That sounded plausible. She blinked when she realised that someone else had just swept into the room with a scowl that would make Snape jealous.

"I'm having a masquerade ball for my anniversary in two weeks. I've made arrangements for it to be held at Hope Mansion so the entire ground floor including the grounds will need to be ready by then."

Ginny choked on the water she'd been sipping. The woman had already left the room before either of them could get a word out in protest.

"There's no way we can get it ready by then!" Ginny finally sputtered, staring helplessly at Draco. "There's so much we'd have to do! We started at the top of the house."

"I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice. Mrs Lowerson is the main contributor behind the refurbishment."

The meeting appeared to have concluded because they were all suddenly on their feet being ushered out of the room towards the lobby. Perdita was studying Ginny with a calculating look on her face but Ginny was too busy fretting over how much work would have to be done to get the house ready to notice. Draco caught the tail-end of the look and he frowned unhappily.

* * *

"Long day." Ginny commented, handing Draco a beer and pulling herself up into the porch swing besides him.

It was a hot night. Ginny could feel the pressure of it pressing against her bare skin. The light breeze that was ruffling the bedding plants near the porch had drawn her away from her designs and the allure of those strange letters, out towards the garden where she had found Draco.

"Good day." Draco shot back, taking a gulp of his beer.

Ginny shook her head and surveyed the garden painted all shades of black and white. They had to get Neville to design the front yard before the party. When they'd reached the house they'd already found letters from party planners and caterers waiting for them. It had been exhausting just thinking about everything they had to do.

"Well we got rid of Perdita, that's something to celebrate." She muttered as she sipped her beer, staring at the inky blackness of the grounds before them.

Draco glared at her for a long moment and she fidgeted, wondering if she had offended him. He broke into a grin after a few heartbeats and she punched him on the arm. They sat in companionable silence for a while, enjoying the cooling night breeze and the strange woodland noises emanating from the trees in the distance. Draco was swaying the swing steadily with one foot.

"Why did you marry her?"

The question came out quite bluntly and Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. He gave a shout of laughter at her embarrassment and then he sobered. He swallowed down huge gulps of beer until some ran down his chin. Ginny waited patiently as he swiped the beer from his chin with a fist.

"We're going to need more alcohol for this conversation." He sighed and took another mouthful of his beer. "I did love her once you know. I ignored all her flaws because I thought I was in love."

He was leaning forwards with his elbows on his knees and Ginny could only partially see his face. She licked her suddenly dry lips, tried to take a sip of her beer before realising that her hand was trembling too much.

"And now?" Ginny prompted, trying not to decipher why her heart was pounding quite so quickly.

He slouched back against the gaudy yellow and orange cushions and peered into his beer as if it held all the answers.

"We're separated." He told her quite matter-of-factly. His face was shadowed by the porch light so she couldn't see his eyes, just the angles and planes of his profile.

He leaned forwards and heaved his beer bottle as far as he could throw it. It landed with a distant thud in the long grass that fringed the woods and blended into the grounds of the house. Ginny put her hand on his forearm and he jolted in surprise.

"She's fighting the divorce."

Ginny pictured everything that Perdita had done to and in front of Draco during her stay. She couldn't picture a reason why that hateful witch would want to stay with Draco apart from his money. She clearly couldn't manipulate him or use him in any way. And she obviously had plenty of other boyfriends to play with.

"Maybe she loves you." Ginny offered quietly, withdrawing her hand and wrapping it around the cold bottle forgotten in her lap.

"Maybe." He conceded after a moment of contemplative silence.

Ginny couldn't think of anything else to say so she got up instead. He followed her into the kitchen as she poured the rest of her beer down the sink, suddenly not very thirsty anymore. She sensed him behind her in the darkness of the kitchen a split second before he'd gripped his wrist and whirled her around. His lips were soft and seeking against hers and she barely had time to react before he had pulled away again. He peered down at her curiously. He could tell her face was flushed even in the shadows the moonlight had thrown over her features. She reached up on her bare toes and closed the gap between them again, trying not to think too much about what was happening. Gentle and investigating his lips moved with hers and she pulled him closer. He smelt like the woodsy shower gel he'd used earlier and he tasted of the cool beer he'd just drank. She felt his fingertips brushing against her skin in the gap between her vest top and sweat pants. The kitchen top was digging into the small of her back but she didn't mind.

He pulled away quite abruptly and she stumbled forwards a step in surprise. He stared at her intently in silence, his mercury eyes boring into hers as if he was searching for something. She couldn't think of anything to say and eventually she dropped her gaze. He squeezed her hand tightly before he left.

* * *

**GrayGreenEyes** – thanks here's your update

**frogstopper77** – thanks very much glad you like it

**a. sam** – I'm not going to give it away that easily. There shall be more updates with more hints in for you =D

**Dracoginnylover24** – I'm afraid she's not gone yet but she is temporarily absent lol

**The Elegant Egotist** – thanks for all those nice things lol hope you like this one too

**Mey** – I think you're right =)


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter, would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'Long Shot' by Kelly Clarkson

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter Six** – **Long Shot**

I felt it, the wire touched my neck  
And then someone pulled it tighter  
I never saw it coming, I started to black out  
And then someone said good morning  
I took it as a warning  
I should have seen it coming  
So now I'll take a chance on  
This thing we may have started  
Intentional or not, I don't think we saw it coming  
It's all adding up to something  
That asks for some involvement  
That ask for our commitment  
I think I see it coming  
If we step out of that limb  
My heart beat beats me senselessly  
Why's everything got to be so intense with me  
I'm trying to handle all this unpredictability  
In all probability  
It's a long shot, but I say why not  
If I say forget it, I know that I'll regret it  
It's a long shot just to beat these odds  
The chance is we won't make it  
But I know if I don't take it, there's no chance  
'Cause you're the best I got  
So take a long shot  
I realize that there is all this starting  
Things we're both scared about  
That we'll never see them coming  
Throw caution to the wind  
And we'll see which way it's blowing  
And to this pulling on  
We'll never see it coming  
Until it's much to close to stop  
My heart beat beats me senselessly  
Why's everything got to be so intense with me  
I'm trying to handle all this unpredictability  
In all probability  
It's a long shot, but I say why not  
If I say forget it, I know that I'll regret it  
It's a long shot just to beat these odds  
The chance is we won't make it  
But I know if I don't take it, there's no chance  
'Cause you're the best I got  
So take a long shot  
Oh I waited for fact to come of fiction  
And you fit my description  
I never saw you coming  
But we'll make it

"I thought you were fixing this place up?" Ron sneezed rapidly several times as Ginny shook out a dust sheet covering one of the big rickety old sofas. "It still looks like the Shrieking Shack to me."

Ginny dropped the sheet and put her hands on her hips, glowering across the room at her brother who was poking a grimy painting with a curious look on his face. The plump elderly woman in the painting huffed and turned her back on him. He continued wandering around the room studying and poking at the various objects they hadn't gotten around to throwing out yet. Now they had a deadline they were going to have to start down here.

"Gee, Ronald, I think you better hold back on those compliments there. I might get misty-eyed." Ginny dead-panned, rolling her eyes when Ron grinned goofily at her.

Ron shrugged one shoulder at her sarcasm then crossed the room to extricate his eight year old son from underneath the antique sofa.

"I thought I warned you what would happen if you didn't behave today, Rory Weasley." Ron scolded sternly, failing to notice that his son's posture exactly mimicked his own.

The boy's luxurious chocolate brown curls tipped forwards into his innocent blue eyes and Ginny giggled. Ron shot her an irritated look as Rory sped off to find Rayne and she shrugged. Hermione was apparently too pregnant to Apparate or Floo and it was still much too hot outside for an eight month pregnant woman to travel this far by carriage so she'd got the day to herself back home.

"I thought I was here for lunch anyway." Ron grumbled as they left the room and reached the foyer, which was still piled high with debris.

She tossed the dust sheets onto the pile, sending up a huge cloud of dust and dirt that settled in her hair and made her cough.

"Yes and I see you're throwing yourself into the kitchen to get it ready." Ginny pointed out as she circled her brother and mounted the stairs. "I'm getting changed. Five minutes."

She blew Ron a kiss when his stomach gave a loud growl and he pulled his face at her. He watched her take her time climbing the stairs and muttered something under his breath, leaning against the banner sulkily. He couldn't stay still for long with all this dust flying around so he wandered over to a doorway half concealed by cobwebs and dirt, tucked behind the stairs. The doorknob was resistant under his hand but eventually it turned and the door swung open. He couldn't see much because of the grime coating the windows behind him. Stairs led down and vanished into darkness. Ron glanced around to see if Ginny was ready yet but there was no sign of her and everybody else was busy. He pulled his wand out of his jeans and muttered a spell, illuminating the tip. He could still only see stairs but the room beneath appeared to be quite large.

The feeling he used to get when he was exploring with Harry was beginning to churn in the base of his stomach. He licked his lips and glanced around again. Still no one. If Harry was here he'd have already been on his way down, he thought. He grinned at the idea and headed down the stairs carefully. The creaky old stairs seemed to last forever but at least there was a wall besides him to guide him. Eventually his feet hit solid floor, surprisingly nice polished floors beneath all the dust. He lifted his wand to shed more light and took a look around.

The room was circular and dotted with elaborate sconces that should have held torches. Murals were painted on the walls but he couldn't make anything out under the grime and spider webs. A fat spider scuttled by him and he jerked back with a shudder. There wasn't much in the room, he noted with disappointment. Just a dozen dips in the floor at specific intervals that formed a circle with a small shape built into the floor before them. Whatever they were they had gone rusty. Ron dropped to one knee and peered closer. A bit too red to be rust actually…

He squinted but then shook his head and got to his feet. Real mature imagining blood in the basement. He chuckled at himself and dusted off his jeans. He moved back towards the stairs but as he passed his light illuminated a slight crack in the wall. Using his wand tip he determined that it was a door built directly into the wall. There wasn't a handle and, after feeling all over the surrounding wall, no pressure point. He was thoroughly intrigued by now, his interest peaked and his imagination working up all kinds of exotic fantasies.

He jumped guiltily when he heard Lyra upstairs and he hurriedly retreated back up the stairs. The light stung his eyes as he closed the door behind him and sidled innocently into the kitchen to wash the dust from his hands and face.

"Ginny! Ginny help!"

Ginny jumped about a foot in the air and hurriedly clutched her dress to cover herself when Lyra exploded into her bedroom. She pulled Lyra into her desk chair, trying to calm Lyra down as they crossed the room. She sat her down and told her to talk slowly as she got changed out of her dusty clothes.

"Grandma Malfoy is here… my father's going to explode!" Lyra wailed, watching as Ginny shoved her arms into her pale violet dress patterned with tiny flowers.

"I don't understand." Ginny frowned, moving in front of Lyra so she could stand on the edge of the chair and zip up her fitted dress for her.

"Grandma Malfoy is so awkward. Daddy hates it when she visits. She's so particular about her room and her bed and what she eats. She only has freshly cooked food, she won't eat out at any restaurants in case she runs into someone she hates which will ruin her lunch and… and…"

Ginny hushed her when she looked like she was becoming hysterical and set her daintily on her feet. She led her downstairs and into the kitchen where Draco was tearing at his snowy hair.

"Bloody women! Always showing up unexpectedly and ruining my day!" He was howling, stomping around the kitchen like a wounded bear. "As if it wasn't bad enough having Weasley here already."

"Shut up you silly man." Ginny said, ignoring the dig and grinning when he whirled on her in a rage. "Go and get your mother from the village." She ordered.

He continued to stare at her in silence as she calmly pulled a couple of huge salmon, freshly caught from the stream by Draco and the children that morning, out of a cooling box. She was already preparing them for cooking when she realised that Draco still hadn't moved.

"Well? Go away so I can sort this out."

He shrugged one shoulder and told Lyra to write to the village to prepare a carriage for them. Ginny ordered Ron to go down to the garden and ask Neville to get her some fresh herbs and then pick some flowers for Narcissa.

"Rayne!" Ginny bellowed out into the garden where Rayne and Rory were on the swing swaying dangerously.

As he appeared in the kitchen doorway she handed him a bowl full of ingredients.

"We're cooking." She informed him, rinsing the salmon under the cold tap in the sink.

Rayne's howl of laughter brought Lyra curiously into the kitchen. Rayne adored cooking… well technically he adored being justified in making a huge amount of mess via playing with his food. As he happily set to work mashing the ingredients in the bowl into a sauce, Draco wandered moodily back into the kitchen with his cloak on.

"Let's go Lyra."

Ginny was busy sliding the bones from the fish as he left the room, Rayne gleefully pulverising whatever was in his bowl besides her. It was a disturbingly domestic picture and it settled heavily on his chest as they Flooed to the village.

"Darling!"

Narcissa oozed elegance and sophistication as she pressed her pale pink lips to her son's cheek. Lyra allowed herself to be swept up in her grandmother's arms, kissing her satiny smooth cheeks sweetly. Narcissa had a genuinely huge soft spot for Lyra and spoiled her rotten at every opportunity. Dressed in the palest blue robes she looked fresh and much younger than her years. As always her silky blonde locks were pinned up in elaborate twists. She surveyed Draco closely until he was starting to fidget.

"You look well." She commented suspiciously. "Are you eating properly for once?"

He scowled at her but ignored the implied slight against his wife and held out his arm to help her into the carriage. He tried to subtly uncover why she had decided to visit them so unexpectedly but she figured him out almost immediately and flatly told him that a mother didn't need a reason to visit her only son and grandchild if she felt the need to. Lyra took up the conversation and regaled Narcissa with stories of her adventures with Rayne and Neville while Draco fell back in his seat and fervently hoped that Ginny was a good cook.

"This is it?" Narcissa let her sharp eyes rove over the entire house as the carriage rolled up the driveway.

Draco helped her out of it and paid the driver to take her bags upstairs, steeling himself. Rayne was still loudly chattering his little head off as Draco showed his mother around the rooms they'd already finished. She nodded appreciatively at Ginny's work, even going so far as to consider hiring her to redecorate the Manor.

Rayne appeared at the top of the stairs to inform them that dinner was ready and he sent the children to wash up. Narcissa insisted on changing out of her travelling clothes so Draco left them to it. He washed his hands and face and changed his shirt, hurrying downstairs to assess the damage.

Draco froze when he stepped out onto the porch, the delicious smell curling around his nostrils enticingly. The table was laid out with huge bowls of chopped vegetables and salads and a bowl of potatoes dripping in parsley and butter. Ron was mixing two massive jugs of Pimms at the side table and Rory was setting out the cutlery for eight places. Ginny was just drizzling some of Rayne's home-made sauce decoratively over the cooked salmon, laid out on a large plate shaped like a leaf, when she heard Draco's muttered exclamation. She turned to face him with a smug grin on her face.

"Well?" She prompted, scattering some chopped parsley on top of the salmon and around the plate.

She stood back to assess her work, pushing her fringe off her pink face. Neville, Ron and Rory took their seats at one end of the table as she moved back into the kitchen to wash her hands.

"I think I might kiss you again." Draco said faintly as Lyra and Rayne came bounding into the room followed by Narcissa.

Ginny turned bright red and she hurriedly splashed some cold water onto her cheeks while he was introducing his mother to everybody. It had been almost a week since he'd kissed her and neither of them had mentioned it. Ginny had put it down to the heat and had pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Mum!"

She shook herself, tied her hair back in a knot off her neck and took her place at the table. Draco was on her left and Rayne was on her right. Every time Draco moved she could feel the material of his trousers brushing her bare thigh. She helped Rayne fill his plate and politely questioned Narcissa about her summer so far. She was very nervous to be in Narcissa's presence, especially since Ron could make things very awkward when he wanted to. Strangely Narcissa was a huge fan of Quidditch and the pair of them were soon arguing the merits of their separate teams.

"Did you make this Draco?" Narcissa asked Draco suspiciously as she chewed delicately on some salmon.

"Yes." He replied boldly without a trace of shame in his face or voice.

Rayne stared at Draco beadily for a very long moment before Ginny hastily distracted him from this lie by handing him an extra helping of peas to keep him quiet.

"Hmmm." Narcissa mumbled, chewing on another piece of salmon thoughtfully.

Ginny and Lyra both got the giggles and Draco scowled at her. This only made her worse and Ginny hurriedly sipped some Pimms to calm herself down.

"You're a good cook." Narcissa told Ginny plainly, helping herself to some more salmon. "Simple yet full of flavour. Like your work."

Draco rolled his eyes when his mother called him on his lie but there was a teasing glint of amusement in her blue eyes.

"You must give me your card. The Manor is very overdue for a make-over." Narcissa continued, frowning when Rayne accidentally flicked a stray pea onto her plate.

She twisted her fork and the pea flew back at Rayne, whizzing past his ear and disappearing into the garden. Rayne looked completely stunned and glanced warily at Ginny. Narcissa winked at him and he grinned, turning his attention back to his lunch. Ginny and Draco exchanged an amused glance. Something flickered between them and Ginny turned away and made a grab for the potatoes.

"I must say, lunching with Weasleys and…" Narcissa fixed her gaze on Neville. He muttered his surname, looking highly uncomfortable at her attention. "And a Longbottom, while unusual, has been highly enjoyable."

Both Draco and Ron looked like they'd had a piano dropped onto their heads but were distracted when Lyra and Rayne began to squabble. Narcissa leaned towards Ginny while Ron and Neville were distracted settling the argument.

"Are you sleeping with my son?"

Ginny turned puce and Draco dropped his fork with a loud clang against the table. Narcissa giggled like a schoolgirl at their reactions and sipped the last of her Pimms.

"Mother." Draco admonished warningly, a tic jumping in his cheek.

Narcissa shrugged and held her glass out for the fresh refill Ron was offering her. She smiled at him absently but she was much more interested in her son's uncomfortable glare. She scooped a slice of lemon out of her glass and sucked on it thoughtfully. Ginny sent Lyra and Rayne into the kitchen to get the fruit salad and ice cream for dessert, hoping that Narcissa had simply drunk too much Pimms and would change the subject once she got bored. Apparently not. Narcissa fixed her sharp gaze on Ginny again.

"You're a lot better than that tramp my son saw fit to marry." Narcissa continued, speaking right over Draco's angry words. "She was never any good for him. Too interested in enjoying herself to build a home with her family."

Ginny shifted uncomfortably and fiddled with the napkin in her lap. Narcissa's voice had taken on a strange tone as if she were telling a story and her pale eyes were fixed on the garden in the distance. It looked particularly beautiful in the bright sunlight. Draco had turned to stone. At least that's what it looked like to Ginny. He was perfectly still in his seat, he didn't even blink. Being sat besides him Ginny could see that his fist was clenched on his thigh. She reached out tentatively and touched the back of his hand. He started and she withdrew her hand without looking at him.

Rayne and Lyra appeared with the ice cream and Ginny leapt to her feet gratefully. While she was busy serving the ice cream and fresh fruit, Ron told them all about the strange room he had found and the uneasiness that had settled over the table receded.

* * *

Ginny huffed and rolled over, holding her watch up to the sliver of moonlight filtering through her curtains. 3am. Still no sign of sleep. She knew why she couldn't sleep and it had nothing to do with the oppressive heat currently sticking her sheets to her skin. She climbed quietly out of bed, pulled on her slipper-boots and slipped on an old shirt of Charlie's over her vest and shorts. She re-tied her hair in its ponytail and grabbed her wand. She paused outside Rayne's room but the sound of his soft even breathing re-assured her and she moved on towards the stairs.

A shadow loomed in the foyer and she froze, her heart thundering in her ears as she ducked down against the banister and watched. The shadow was doing something but it had its back to her. She cursed herself for being a coward after everything they'd gone through during the war but there was something dark about this house. She uttered a half-shriek when the shadow appeared right in front of her, falling back against the steps.

"It's rude to creep up on people in the dark."

When she could breathe again she scowled at Draco who had lit his wand and was peering down at her in amusement. He held a hand out to help her to her feet but she batted it away.

"What are you doing skulking around at this hour?" She snapped, still sprawled on the floor because she wasn't sure her shaking knees would hold her right now.

He lifted an eyebrow and she flushed, wrapping her shirt around herself and getting quickly to her feet.

"The same thing you are." He relented, indicating the door over his shoulder.

She brushed past him and headed to the door without replying. It was open but there was nothing but darkness on the other side. A deep abiding darkness that seemed to swell out towards her and she shivered. A bright white light fell over her shoulder and she could feel his presence behind her. Stairs appeared out of the darkness and she lit her own wand.

"It's just a room." She muttered firmly, squinting into the darkness.

Draco touched her shoulder lightly and moved his lips to her ear.

"Trying to convince me or yourself there, Weasley?" He teased, side-stepping past her and descending the stairs.

She stuck her tongue out at his back then scurried after him down the stairs. The room was just as Ron had described and it didn't take them long to go over it. Ginny used the tail of her shirt to wipe away some of the grunge covering the murals. They looked like figures, female figures, all swathed in dark robes. Ginny would have thought they were Death Eaters but the paintings were too old. The women were standing in circles but she couldn't make anything else out in the gloom. Draco was looking for a way into the hidden door. His wand was stuck between his teeth and he had his hands flat against the stone looking for a trigger.

"Ron already tried that." She pointed out as she made her way over to him.

"A Gryffindor." Draco managed to sound derisive even whilst talking around a wand. "Let the Slytherin look for the secrets."

She rolled her eyes and was about to say something nasty about his own secrets but she was distracted when she stubbed her toe on one of the raised objects protruding from the floor. She tripped and went down on all fours, hard. She caught her head on another of the protrusions and saw stars. When she could see again it was Draco's upside down amused smirk that she saw first.

"Ow."

He laughed and yanked her to her feet, steadying her when her head began to spin. He pushed her fringe away from her face to study the mark in the harsh wand light.

"Well despite your amazing grace and your awesome gift of both poise and elegance, you're going to have a lovely bruise in the morning."

She would liked to have knocked him back with an outstanding piece of witty repartee, but at the moment she was too occupied by how close he was standing to her. His big hands were cool and dry against her heated cheek and temple where he was holding her hair back. His eyes were dark and the light from their wands was casting strange shadows on his face. His breath was warm against her ear and she swallowed.

"I'll be fine" She told him shakily, reaching up to push his hand away.

He released her and took a small step back. He was peering at her strangely. He eventually turned away and went back over to the door. Ginny followed him slowly.

"We could get an expert down to crack it open." He mused, rubbing his chin absently. The stubble beginning to darken his jaw was much darker than his hair, almost black.

"I bet I can open it." Ginny said with an edge of superiority in her voice, something she'd managed to pick up from him.

He slanted his gaze towards her and she smiled sweetly, reaching around him and pressing her palm flat against the centre of the door. Nothing happened for an interminably long time then something shifted behind the door, a dark light raced along the outline and the door itself dissolved into mist. Ginny danced around him and gave a little twirl of satisfaction. She'd learnt to be smug from having six older brothers and she could definitely take him where that was concerned.

"How did you do that?" He grudgingly asked, following her over the threshold.

She put her head on one side and a finger to her chin as if she was thinking very hard about something. Then she shrugged and put her hands on her hips.

"Let's just say it needed a woman's touch."

He pondered it for a moment but she was busy looking at their surroundings. This room was much smaller than the one they'd just left. Ginny guessed it probably stretched under the utility room attached to the kitchen. There was a row of hooks on the back wall and a set of robes hung on each hook. They looked like the robes from the murals. They must have been protected by magic because when she reached out to touch one they still felt velvety smooth and expensive. It also felt powerful. Power and heat radiated through her fingertips and she let go.

"It's just a closet."

She shook her head but Draco couldn't see her. She had an uncomfortable feeling about this place. When they got back upstairs she could see that Draco was disappointed and she smiled.

"Well that was exciting." She stifled a yawn. "We should probably get back to bed."

He gave her an appraising look and she blinked in embarrassment, stammering to explain herself.

"You never asked me why I kissed you." He interrupted her, the same coolly curious look on his face as he studied her.

She stared at him in surprise, a whirl of conflicting thoughts whipping around her head. She couldn't think of anything to say so she didn't say anything. He took a step towards her until only inches separated them. Her face was turned up towards his and her freckles looked darker than ever against her moonlit face.

"What if I kissed you again?" He continued, his gaze skewering straight through her and rooting her to the spot.

He'd backed her up against the banister and now he reached out and put one hand against the rotting wood on either side of her shoulders.

"Are you going to kiss me?" She asked him, slightly concerned at the way her stomach was writhing in excitement.

He could see something of her anticipation flickering across her face. That was one of the things he liked best about her, she couldn't hide anything. Everyone he knew had a mask in place twenty-four-seven but Ginny wore her heart on sleeve. Everything she felt she showed on her face. Her eyelashes were excessively long and black as ink against her pale freckled cheeks. Her plump lips were slightly parted.

"Maybe."

His face was inscrutable in the soft light from the windows but his eyes were bright. She lifted her hands and pressed them against his chest. The thin material of his t-shirt was no barrier between their skin and she could feel the planes of his chest beneath her fingers.

"Kiss me."

It was half an order and half a plea and his lips twitched briefly into a smile before he lowered them towards hers. His lips were gentle and soft against hers, barely touching no matter how close she tried to get. He was teasing her, she realised and she dug her fingers into his t-shirt in frustration. She could feel him smiling and she bristled. Time to gain the upper hand, it seemed. She leaned closer towards him, her hands tracing the muscles of his abdomen with a feather-light touch until he quivered pleasantly. She could have deepened the kiss herself but she waited for him to move closer against her.

"Ahem."

Ginny leapt backwards as if she'd been electrified but Draco merely looked annoyed at the interruption. He let his hands fall from her sides and turned to face his mother who had emerged from the kitchen with a cup of tea in her hand. Her hair was down for once and it caught the moonlight. She was in a lavender silky night-dress that flowed down to her bare feet. She looked much younger. She also looked highly amused and very pleased with herself.

"We were just…"

Ginny was at a loss and she looked at Draco for help. He didn't seem inclined to offer up an excuse but Ginny looked so stricken with embarrassment that he heaved a sigh and faced his mother.

"We were exploring the secret room her brother found."

She lifted her eyebrows in a very accurate imitation of her son.

"Uh huh." She said slowly, crossing the foyer and heading for the stairs. "Of course you were."

She gave them a long look as she passed them and then continued on up the stairs. Once they were alone again they stared at each other consideringly. The sky was lightening outside and it seemed to bring them both back to reality.

"Do you want to talk about what just happened?" She asked him cautiously, running a hand through her ponytail absently.

"No." He shook his head for emphasis and she let out the breath she'd been holding.

"Good. Me neither."

Talking about it would mean analyzing why it had happened, twice. That was something she couldn't handle right now. She didn't want to know why that had just happened. She definitely didn't want to know why she had wanted that to happen. Things would just get complicated and she was too busy for that. They parted at the hallway that separated their individual wings. Draco kissed her lingeringly on the cheek before he left and she was most disconcerted at the shiver that trailed down her spine.

* * *

**frogstopper77** – thanks, sorry about the long wait here's the next chapter for you

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**hallee87** – I'm afraid she'll be around again for a bit longer, hope you like your update


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N**: If I owned anything to do with Harry Potter, would I be a poor student writing fanfiction about it? No I don't own anything except maybe a plot or two if you can find one.

**Full Summary**: Ginny Weasley's son and Draco Malfoy's daughter hate each other as much as their parents hate each other, which makes things difficult when both Ginny and Draco are hired to restore a dilapidated mansion. It gets even worse when the family who lived there a century ago just won't leave them alone until they find out what happened to them.

**Pairings**: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Harry/OC

**Rating**: M for language and eventual sex scenes

Lyrics from 'Don't You Wanna Stay' by Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson

**Dreaming Out Loud**

**Chapter Seven** – **Don't You Wanna Stay**

I really hate to let this moment go

Touching your skin, and your hair falling slow

When a goodbye kiss, feels like this  
Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

Don't you wanna hold each other tight?

Don't you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

We can make forever feel this way

Don't you wanna stay?  
Let's take it slow, I don't wanna move too fast

I don't wanna just make love, I wanna make love last

When you're on this high, it's a sad goodbye  
Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

Don't you wanna hold each other tight?

Don't you wanna fall asleep with me tonight?

Don't you wanna stay here a little while?

We can make forever feel this way

Don't you wanna stay?

"Rayne, you are working on my last nerve." Ginny snapped, shoving her sweating fringe off her forehead.

Rayne pouted at her and she glared right back.

"I want to help."

It was on the tip of her tongue to blurt out that Rayne helping had only caused more work for her, but she bit it back with a gargantuan effort.

"Go and ask Neville if you can help him."

Rayne gave her a betrayed look but obediently disappeared. Ginny sighed and surveyed the wreckage of the room before her. Bloody ball. Common sense had dictated that their first priority should be the ballroom. A convoy of young wizards had arrived to help them clear out the rubbish. Narcissa had completely stunned both Ginny and her son when she'd arrived in the ballroom in an old pair of jeans and a designer black t-shirt with her hair wound in a tight bun at the back of her head. She had immediately taken control of the young wizards, organizing them into an orderly workforce. Ginny and two wizards were washing everything down as soon as an area was cleared. It really was a huge room. A whole day in and they were only just clearing out the last of the rubble and old furniture. Hot soapy water had revealed a beautiful floor of green and white chequered marble. The walls had once been white but were now stained and peeling. Straightening up and swiping a tired hand across her cheeks, Ginny surveyed the room. The wizards were scrubbing everything down and chattering happily as Lyra plied them with fresh lemonade. Draco was laughing with one of them by the French windows. He tipped his head back to laugh at something the wizard said, the sunlight filtering through the grimy glass gilding his hair with gold.

"What are you thinking?"

Ginny jumped and flushed, shooting a sidelong glance at Narcissa standing besides her with her dusty hands on her hips. The two of them hadn't been alone since the older woman had found her in a rather passionate lip-lock with her son.

"The room." She clarified when the redhead continued to stare at her in horror.

"Oh. Erm. Mirrors." Ginny stammered, pointing at the long left-hand wall of the oblong room. "I was thinking mirrors all along that wall."

"I like it." Narcissa said enthusiastically, eyeing the French windows which stretched the length of the right side of the room.

The wooden frames were mainly intact and just needed another coat of paint but several panes of glass were broken or missing entirely. As Ginny and Narcissa discussed whether to replace the missing panes or re-glass the entire doors, Ginny realised someone was watching them. She glanced over her shoulder. One of the older wizards, and by older she meant he was at least nineteen, was gazing intently at Narcissa. Ginny giggled, nudging Narcissa with her elbow. Draco glanced up as this exchange was taking place and his face darkened. He strode over towards them.

"We were thinking of having entirely new glass put in here." Ginny told him as he approached.

He gave her a dark look and didn't reply. She frowned in surprise. He spoke to the wizards working on the doors and then stamped out of the room without so much as a glance at them.

"Excuse me."

Narcissa hurried after him, leaving a thoroughly baffled Ginny in her wake.

"I did not raise you to be impolite." She scolded as soon as they were alone in the kitchen.

He glowered at her.

"Don't sulk at me, boy." She snapped. "You two keep dancing around each other, you've no right to be jealous."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Draco muttered mutinously as he crashed around extracting glasses from the cupboards.

"You thought that cute little wizard was drooling over her, didn't you?" Narcissa observed in some amusement.

"Wasn't he?" Draco snapped despite himself, sounding exactly like a sulky teenager.

"Nope." Narcissa said airily. "He was undressing me with his eyes. He didn't even glance at Ginny."

Draco choked on the water he'd been guzzling, spraying it all over the counter. He stared at his mother in horror. She smiled smugly back at him. He had always known his mother was attractive but he had never thought of her as a sexual being. The idea that a boy young enough to be her son would find her attractive had completely floored him.

"Now stop behaving like a spoiled brat and go back to work."

"If I'm a spoiled brat it's your fault." He mumbled mutinously as he followed her out of the kitchen.

Ginny eyed him warily as he re-joined her in the ballroom. He gave her a small grin. She smiled back and he felt guilt flare in his gut. It was a sweet smile that he didn't deserve.

"The ceiling is going to need doing. The floor needs polishing. Chandeliers need repairing."

He nodded, watching her from the corner of his eye. She was sweaty and covered in dust, there was a nasty bruise on her arm and a delicate trail of blood along one cheek where she'd caught it on a loose pane of glass. She was also glowing, the late afternoon sun had burnished her skin to bronze and shot gold through her hair. She realised he was staring and she peeped at him strangely.

"I'm going to get to work on those doors." He muttered.

* * *

"And it's perfectly safe?" Mrs Lowerson ran a small piggy eye over the entrance hall.

"As long as everyone stays away from the upper floors." Ginny said between gritted teeth.

This woman was seriously testing her patience. She had forced them to alter their timeline, practically ran them into the ground to get the place habitable in time for her stupid ball and now she was eyeing their work as if she could have done better in half the time.

"Well. It's acceptable." She sniffed.

Ginny took an angry step forward but Draco's hand whipped out and gripped her wrist. He squeezed gently, just enough pressure to halt her in her tracks. She forced herself to smile as she gave the old bat the guided tour. The marble floor of the entrance hall had been polished to a high gleam, the wooden mahogany stair rails had been polished and oiled until you could practically see your reflection in them. A gilt and glass round table stood in the centre of the hall, a golden bowl dead centre waiting for Mrs Lowerson's floral arrangement. Two huge elaborately carved mahogany doors beneath the balcony opened out into the ballroom. The black and white marble floor shone. The chandeliers had been fixed and cleaned and the ceiling had been mirrored, reflecting the soft light. Huge gilt-framed mirrors had been installed on the left hand side and the French doors had been re-painted and re-paned and were currently open to air out the room. Mrs Lowerson made idle comments as she perused the entire room with pinched lips. Eventually she conceded that they had done a good job and withdrew.

"Goodbye… you vicious old hag." Ginny said through her smile as Mrs Lowerson was swept away in her expensive carriage.

"That evil little smile of hers will vanish the instant she sets one beady little eye on the bill." Draco murmured naughtily in her ear.

Ginny giggled, slightly breathless at his close proximity. She sighed and scrubbed her hands back through her tangled hair.

"I just want to sleep for a week." She complained wistfully.

"In your dreams." Draco taunted tartly. "The bloody caterers will be arriving in a minute."

Ginny felt as if she might cry. Mrs Lowerson had insisted on their presence at the ball and all she wanted to do was sleep. On cue, a rather rickety old wagon trundled up the road and clattered into the courtyard. Neville had excelled himself with the grounds, restoring the fountain by hand and painstakingly re-structuring the entire garden between the gates and the entrance. Beautiful flowers circled the fountain, expensive chips of some rare stone or other formed the driveway and delicate weeping willows lined the driveway towards the house.

"We've got a couple of hours before we have to make an appearance, right?"

Draco, startled out of his reverie, nodded. He blinked in surprise when she whirled back into the house. He was still standing there when she re-emerged with her purse, absently pulling her hair back with a hair-tie.

"I'll be back."

He watched her disappear out of the gates in amazement. Rayne and Lyra were both with Molly for the night and he now found himself at a loss. The ballroom and kitchen were swarming with caterers and staff, a dozen wizards were erecting a huge white gazebo in the garden and witches in silver robes were whipping around the house bearing tiny lights. He had nowhere to retreat to but upstairs. He found himself on Ginny's side of the house. Her door was half open and he peeked inside. As a Slytherin he felt no guilt at invading her privacy, just minor curiosity at how his heart pounded to be in her room. It was almost intimate to be in so sacred a place. Her bed was neatly made, the out-sized t-shirt she'd slept in balled up besides her pillow. Some papers and designs were spread across the cream bedspread, mixed in with colour swatches and photographs of furniture she was considering. A wet towel trailed over the chair by the vanity table. Her brush had been tossed onto the bed carelessly besides a crumpled sweater. The top was off on her perfume on the vanity table and he found himself breathing it in. The room was very Ginny. She'd painted it golden yellow with white trim around the windows and doors. Sunflowers had been painted around the big bed. He knew they were her favourite. A vase of actual sunflowers on the windowsill drifted dreamily in the slight breeze through the open window.

The doors to her white wicker wardrobe were standing open. Perdita's clothes were a carefully organized rack of vibrant colours, expensive designer dresses, skirts, blouses and suits arranged by style. Ginny's clothes were a jumble of old sweaters and shirts that were clearly handed down from her brothers and kept for sentimental reasons, jeans and comfortable loungewear, interspersed with the jewel-bright flashes of colour of her dresses. Perdita also had racks and racks of expensive lingerie, most of which she had never worn for him. He eyed the drawers of the wardrobe speculatively. No. That would definitely be too perverse.

The sound of his name made him flinch guiltily and he sidled out of the room, leaning over the balcony. One of the caterers was gesturing at him impatiently from the entrance hall. Apparently Mrs Lowerson's flower arrangements had arrived.

* * *

"Merlin's briefs!" Ginny swore when she returned, gaping at the quite hideous flower arrangements in disbelief.

"My thoughts exactly." Draco commented, busy signing the parchment the flower delivery guy had shoved towards him with a grunt.

"They're so garish!" She managed to get out, poking one mauve tulip with her fingernail. "Purple and orange?"

Draco snorted with laughter, eyeing the delivery boy to see if he was offended. He wasn't. In fact he was staring over his shoulder as if he were mesmerized. Draco followed his gaze. Apparently she'd gone to get her hair done. The thick locks had been trimmed and gleamed like molten lava. Beautiful waves rippling like a shining red river. He'd gotten used to her hair being a tangled mess tied back out of her way, he'd never really noticed how beautiful it was.

"What?" She snapped defensively as she found him looking intently at her with narrowed eyes.

He didn't reply, turning back to the boy and shoving the parchment at him. Ginny gave him a strange look and then headed for the stairs. She had been planning to wear her blue dress again but she'd discovered a tear in it she couldn't repair with magic. Of course she only remembered this as she peered into her wardrobe in her underwear with a towel wrapped around her dripping wet hair an hour before the ball was due to start.

"I knew you'd forget."

Ginny jumped. Narcissa sauntered into her room without waiting for an invitation. She heaped a bundle of different coloured fabrics onto the bed. Ginny looked at her. Narcissa behaved more as she'd expect a sister to than her mother did. She certainly didn't look like anyone's mother, dressed only in an extremely short silk dressing gown with her white-blonde waves trailing down her back.

"You're a little short than I am." She said thoughtfully, drawing Ginny's attention back to her present conundrum.

Ginny eyed the dresses enviously. So that was what a thousand galleon dress looked like. Narcissa held up a green dress, the obvious choice with Ginny's hair and eyes. Ginny held it up against herself dutifully but her eyes were drawn to a dress still laid out on the bed. Narcissa followed her gaze and her mouth curved into a smirk identical to the one her son wore so frequently. She didn't say anything but retrieved the dress Ginny was eyeing.

"Never suited me. My colouring is too pale." Narcissa commented as she held the dress up against Ginny's slender body.

Ginny felt excitement flicker in her chest. She had been dreading the ball and the long boring night ahead, but she felt quite giddy playing dress up with Narcissa. Narcissa clearly had no intention of leaving, though she did politely turn away as Ginny wriggled into the dress. The silky material flowed like water over her skin.

"Hmmm… we're going to have to make some adjustments." Narcissa mused, recovering her wand from the depths of her robe and tapping her chin with it thoughtfully.

* * *

Boring. Masquerade balls were always boring, well except those ones of Zabini's where the mask was all you were allowed to wear. Unfortunately this was nothing like those. Middle-ages witches and wizards in spangly dresses and too-tight tuxedos. Those that had arrived in robes had hurriedly stripped out of them thanks to the punishing heat. Draco accepted a cocktail from a passing waitress. The pretty little thing fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"Draco, darling."

Draco choked on his drink as Perdita glided towards him, cutting a swathe through the gaping wizards. At first he'd found her blatant sexuality appealing, now he found it embarrassing. The dress, if that's what you could call it, covered very little of her expansive assets. Black silk draped artfully over her body. Draco was very concerned that if she made a sudden movement something would pop out of the silk. Her elaborate mask was black velvet, trailing peacock feathers over her dark curls. She coiled herself around him and he tried very hard not to wince.

"Where's your little assistant?" She purred into his ear.

He ignored her. His mother had just entered the ballroom, resplendent in green velvet with a matching mask in one hand and her platinum curls piled on top of her head. She glided over, parting the crowd with sheer force of personality rather than her assets.

"Perdita." She said coolly, running an unimpressed eye over her daughter-in-law.

"Narcissa."

The two women stared each other down for a moment.

"You look beautiful, mother." Draco bent to kiss her cheek, defusing the situation before the claws came out.

"It's amazing what a mid-afternoon tryst with a boy half your age can do for the complexion." Narcissa said slyly.

Draco turned puce.

"Mother!"

Narcissa shrugged, not looking the slightest bit abashed.

"Where's Ginny?" She asked, balancing on her tiptoes and craning her neck over the crowd.

"I don't think she's come down yet." Draco said distractedly, he was completely baffled at the sudden liking Narcissa had taken to Ginny. His mother didn't like anyone.

"Here she is."

Narcissa held out a long slender hand into the crowd. Draco and Perdita turned as Ginny joined them. Her hair was unmistakable, besides the fancily knotted and curled locks of the women around them, Ginny had simply brushed out her long hair until it gleamed in one long smooth sheet of fire. Her pearly limbs shone in the golden light of the chandeliers. Her silver grey dress clung to her willowy body, emphasising the curve of her hips and the swell of her breasts. High-necked at both front and back, two triangular swatches of material had been removed exposing the delicate bones of her shoulder blades. A delicate silver bracelet glittered at her wrist and tiny diamond drops flashed in her ears beneath the sequinned silver mask. She looked flawless, like a diamond shimmering amongst the crowd.

"You look beautiful." Narcissa beamed, a smug smile creasing her face.

"Isn't that one of your old dresses?" Perdita asked pointedly.

"Absolutely not." Narcissa lied haughtily, tilting her chin to glare at her.

Perdita rolled her eyes.

"Draco, I want to dance."

"I don't." Draco said in a deceptively quietly tone, fixing flinty eyes on his wife.

Perdita narrowed her eyes. In their entire marriage he had never refused her anything. Reverting to form she grabbed a nearby wizard and dragged him away to dance. Draco didn't even seem to notice. He opened his mouth to speak but Mrs Lowerson elbowed her way between them and introduced Ginny to her nephew, who promptly whisked her away to dance.

Draco had been on edge all night, snapping when he should have been flattering and ignoring when he should have been grovelling. He wasn't quite sure, but he thought it might have something to do with the fact that he had been unable to speak to Ginny all night. He was feeling twitchy, like a junkie in need of a fix. He was also sick to the back teeth of Perdita. Since she couldn't seem to goad him with her barbed tongue tonight, she had taken to flaunting herself at every wizard she could get her hands on. The fact that this didn't seem to affect him either had her in a towering temper. She had the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with that common little redhead. She cast a glance around. Draco was gulping down another drink by the French doors, quite blatantly ignoring the dumpy little witch talking his ear off and also quite obviously watching Ginny across the room. She walked away from the wizard leering down the front of her dress, leaving him mid-sentence. Her husband flicked a cursory glare at her as she approached.

"Dance with me." She curled one hand around his bicep in a vice-like grip, leaning in close. "You will dance with me, or I will make such a scene…"

He gritted his teeth, but led her out onto the dance floor anyway.

"She's a cute little thing, I suppose." She murmured once they were dancing.

Draco grunted but didn't reply.

"Is she why you want to divorce me?"

He flinched as if she'd struck him but regained his usual poise almost immediately. She observed with some amusement the contrast between his stiff posture and implacable mask and the way his body reacted to having her so close. He was still attracted to her, she knew that much.

"Weasley has nothing to with it." He snapped stiffly.

"Oh no?" She repositioned her thigh so it slid between his own, the silk of her dress sliding against the soft material of his trousers. "I find that hard to believe."

"I filed for divorce before she even entered the picture."

She pressed against him slightly, annoyed that he still sent a flush of desire shooting through her.

"Oh? So she's in the picture?"

He gave her an exasperated look.

"We've hated each other since Hogwarts." He narrowed his eyes at her. "I will not explain myself to a woman who spent most of our marriage in someone else's bed."

"Don't kid yourself, Draco." She laughed, pressing so tightly against him he almost stumbled. "This is not for me." She lifted her thigh against the swollen pressure in his groin.

The song ended and she vanished. He felt uneasiness stir in his breast. He had come to rely on Ginny, not exactly as a friend or even a working partner, but definitely as something. When he had a spare moment he found himself automatically seeking her out, if only to tease her. As if drawn by a magnet, his eyes sought her through the crowd. She was laughing at something Lowerson's nephew had said to her, her head tilted so she could meet his gaze, the light on her hair and mask making her glow. She said something to him and then made her way towards the French doors. He followed.

She bypassed the gazebo, lit by dozens of minute lights and filled with laughing figures. She traversed the length of the house until she reached the back porch. It was quiet around this side of the house, lit only by the kitchen light filtering out through the windows.

"Following me for a reason, Malfoy?" She turned towards him, one hand resting against the pillar of the porch.

"Just taking in the air, Weasley."

She wasn't even looking at him, she was looking up at the sky.

"Uh huh." She dropped her gaze to meet his, her eyes sparkling from the depths of the mask. "Not out here to meet the pretty little waitress who's been making goo-goo eyes at you all night?"

He laughed.

"I thought maybe you were out here to meet that wizard you've been dancing with all night."

She wrinkled her nose but her lips were quirked into a smile.

"Polite duty. He's our benefactor's nephew. I can't seem to shake him."

Draco frowned at the pleased little hop his heart gave. He had fallen hard for Perdita but it had mainly been lust, the frantic heat of something everybody else wanted who had wanted him, well at the time anyway. He was almost afraid of the tangle of emotions Ginny stirred in him.

"I'm not buying it, Malfoy. You're just as bored as I am." She broke through his ruminating.

His face split into a smile. He moved towards her without consciously deciding to do so. When there were merely inches between them, she reached up. Her hands were trembling slightly. Her fingertips were warm as they brushed his cheeks, the high cheekbones smooth beneath her skin, sliding along the edge of his satin mask. She slid it up into the silken cloud of his hair.

"What are you doing?" He murmured, his breath warm against her cheek.

"I wanted to check something." Her voice hitched and his eyes flickered briefly down to her lips, painted red and curving invitingly. "My dress matches your eyes."

"Is that why you wore it?"

She shook her head.

"Just a pleasant coincidence."

He found his hands lifting of their own volition. He traced the outline of her mask with his thumbs, working towards the attached combs which held it in her hair. His fingers gently slid the combs out of her hair, catching the mask in one hand. He tilted her chin with his other hand. Even in the harsh light beaming from the kitchen she was dazzling. She had circled her eyes in black to emphasise them through the mask, her freckled cheeks were faintly pink and her lip was trembling. He studied her. This was different, the kisses they'd exchanged before had been light. If he kissed her now, it would mean something. He wasn't sure what it would mean. He felt as if he was reaching out towards a naked flame, the heat scorching his fingertips but he couldn't draw them back.

She melted against him, her body fitting tightly to his, the soft contours moulding to the hard planes of his body. It was impossible to tell who had initiated the kiss but they attacked each other with equal fervour. He still held her face in his hand, his thumbs brushing her jaw. Her hand slid up his chest and into the silky silver strands at the nape of his neck. She was making helpless little gasping noises against his mouth, clutching him to her as if he might vanish if she let go. It was lucky the porch was behind them because she was certain her knees weren't holding her up anymore. Her stomach seemed to have disappeared too, at least it wasn't where she usually kept it. Her entire body was aflame, she could feel each place her body was in contact with his; his knee between hers, his hands at her naked throat and in her hair, his hip lodged against hers. She was quite sure that the extensive skirt was the only reason he wasn't already inside her, certainly she could feel him pressed flush against her leg.

He finally broke away, leaning his cheek against hers as he gulped air into his tortured lungs. Her hair smelt of strawberries and her perfume. Her cheek was burning hot against his. She felt so slender and lithe in his arms, graceful and fragile yet burning as bright as a flame.

"Ahem."

They broke apart. Narcissa looked nothing if not amused and somewhat smug. She grasped her skirts in one hand, spun elegantly on her heel and drifted back towards the ball.

"No." Draco muttered stubbornly.

She looked at him in surprise.

"I don't want to go back and you can't make me."

She laughed.

"I don't want to either."

"Well you know, maybe-"

Draco inched his lips towards hers again, one hand curling around her waist and drawing her towards him. She let him brush his lips against hers again, his tongue gliding lightly against her lips, then she put a firm hand on his chest.

"We'll get fired." She said a little breathlessly, smoothing her dress back into place.

He muttered something under his breath but obediently took a step back from her.

"Besides." Her face was unreadable as she pinned her mask back into place. "Your wife will probably be looking for you."

He felt his stomach clench like a fist as she stepped around him and disappeared into the darkness of the garden.


End file.
